MIT News - Student lifehttp://news.mit.edu/topic/mitstudent-life-rss.xml
MIT News is dedicated to communicating to the media and the public the news and achievements of the students, faculty, staff and the greater MIT community.enFri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00:00 -0400Lending mind, hand, and heart http://news.mit.edu/2018/student-profile-isabella-pecorari-0316
Senior Isabella Pecorari is building supportive communities at MIT and beyond.Fri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00:00 -0400Fatima Husain | MIT News correspondenthttp://news.mit.edu/2018/student-profile-isabella-pecorari-0316<p>MIT senior Isabella Pecorari embarked on a path to medicine at a young age, beginning with a grade-school fascination with biology.</p>
<p>“I could not get enough,” Pecorari says, recalling how she used to stay after her biology class and ask questions from lists she wrote. “It was ridiculous. There was just no stopping me!”</p>
<p>Since the sixth grade, Pecorari has intended to develop her interest in biology to help others in a medical setting. When it came time to attend college, she knew MIT would be a good fit. “I knew that if I was going to be premed, I wanted to have a supportive environment,” Pecorari says. “I wanted to be in a team-building setting where I could work with other students through problem sets rather than struggling alone.”</p>
<p>Pecorari has thrived in that environment and is now on a mission to help grow the support systems for others at MIT. As the brain and cognitive sciences major pursues a career as a physician, she aims to apply what she’s learned while helping to foster mental health and wellness in her community.</p>
<p><strong>Helping others succeed</strong></p>
<p>Pecorari is passionate about mental health education and providing support to fellow students in need. “People think that MIT students have everything,” Pecorari says, “but mental health is not about what you see on the outside — it's more about what's going on inside.”</p>
<p>During her sophomore year, Pecorari joined Peer Ears, a student-run organization that fosters conversations about mental health and provides resources to students facing mental health crises.</p>
<p>“People are often afraid to come out and ask for help because there’s such a stigma around mental health issues,” she says. Now the president of Peer Ears, Pecorari hopes to destigmatize those mental health discussions in undergraduate dorms across campus. Peer Ears representatives are trained extensively by MIT mental health clinicians on how to reach out and respond to students facing mental health crises.</p>
<p>Under Pecorari’s leadership, the organization is creating a booklet for incoming freshman that presents information about mental health issues common to college students and the resources students can go to for help.</p>
<p>“It allows students who might be going through a difficult time to realize that they are not alone in the way they are feeling,” Pecorari says. She hopes the booklet will be complete in time for the incoming class of 2022.</p>
<p>Peer Ears also helps host dorm-wide study breaks where undergraduate students can stop by, talk to representatives, and study within a supportive atmosphere. The organization has also begun a care package program, funded by the MindHandHeart initiative, which provides food-filled care packages to students during spring final exam periods.</p>
<p>“We’d set up a booth in Lobby 10 where people could stop by and make a care package for themselves or a friend,” Pecorari recalls. “It was a big concern of ours that people weren’t always eating when it was a stressful time.”</p>
<p>The program kick-off was a success, and Peer Ears will hold another care package session at the end of this spring semester.</p>
<p>Pecorari also works on the executive board of MIT BrainTrust, a student-run organization in which students are paired with individuals from the greater Boston area who have survived traumatic brain injuries, for meetups throughout the year.</p>
<p>BrainTrust gives survivors “a buddy system — someone they can reach out to and talk to and rely on so they don’t feel alone,” Pecorari says. During her time at BrainTrust, Pecorari has invited physicians from the Boston area to host discussions during meetups, and she has curated panels discussing Alzheimer’s disease for attendees.</p>
<p>Pecorari is also president of Student-Alumni Association, and she previously served as a panhellenic recruitment counselor. In addition to her classes and extracurricular activities, Pecorari has been a teaching assistant for two courses: CC.5111 (Principles of Chemical Science) and 9.00 (Introduction to Psychological Science).</p>
<p><strong>Researching tomorrow’s remedies</strong></p>
<p>Pecorari’s curiosity about biology led her to begin formal research when she was a high school student, working at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.</p>
<p>“The P.I. of the lab was at first very hesitant to bring me on board because usually you need to be at least 18 years old,” she says. “But I was persistent and I really just wanted to have the opportunity to get involved in research and see what it was all about.”</p>
<p>Pecorari joined the lab at 16 and was assigned tasks such as data analysis and creating presentations. When she turned 18, she began culturing cells and learning about the medicines prescribed to patients at the hospital.</p>
<p>These experiences primed her for the research-rich environment at MIT. During her sophomore year, Pecorari joined the lab of Institute Professor Ann Graybiel to learn how to develop microelectrodes that detect dopamine levels in animal brains. Pecorari liked the application of the work: It could be used to develop treatments for and understand the mechanisms behind Parkinson’s disease.</p>
<p>Currently, Pecorari works in the lab of Poitras Chair Professor of Neuroscience Guoping Feng, to develop animal models for Huntington’s disease that can be used to test possible treatments.</p>
<p>“It can often take months or even years to produce results you want in research,” Pecorari says. “I’m really appreciative of the opportunity to understand what goes on behind the scenes and to know that the work I’m doing today, no matter how small a part, can possibly help someone in the future. That’s what really drives me.”</p>
<p><strong>Determination, strength, and looking forward</strong></p>
<p>Pecorari is also an avid equestrian and has been riding since her childhood. When she was 11, she began to train a 3-year-old horse. The training took intense patience and determination; when Pecorari began, the horse wasn’t even used to wearing a bridle.</p>
<p>“It took a full two years before I could get a ride on him,” Pecorari recalls. She began to successfully compete with the horse in local and national competitions — a testament to her hard work.</p>
<p>During her sophomore year of college, Pecorari decided to train another horse.</p>
<p>“I knew that medical school was in the future and had the sense that [training a horse] takes up so much time and commitment. I probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to do this at a later date,” Pecorari says. “So I just went for it.”</p>
<p>At the beginning of the summer before her junior year, Pecorari was thrown from the horse. “He threw me from his back, trampled me, and broke my back in five places,” Pecorari says, “so that summer did not turn out as expected.”</p>
<p>During the intensive healing process, Pecorari experienced the role of a patient, which gave her a new view on medicine.</p>
<p>“I gained an understanding of what it was like to go through something that’s really scary, uncertain, and painful,” she says. “Even though this was a really traumatic experience, I tried to remain optimistic and to think of the benefits that could come out of it and how I could possibly use my experience to help people.”</p>
<p>Pecorari intends to apply that outlook to the rest of her time at MIT and to her future in medicine, supporting others and fostering community along the way.</p>
MIT senior Isabella Pecorari embarked on a path to medicine at a young age, beginning with a grade-school fascination with biology.Image: Jake BelcherProfile, Students, Undergraduate, School of Science, Brain and cognitive sciences, Health, Mental health, Medicine, Women, Women in STEM, Student life, Volunteering, outreach, public service, CommunityBringing meaningful technologies to market http://news.mit.edu/2018/student-profile-matthew-chun-0302
MIT senior and Rhodes Scholar Matthew Chun wants to promote innovation that enhances quality of life in developing countries.Thu, 01 Mar 2018 23:59:59 -0500Fatima Husain | MIT News correspondenthttp://news.mit.edu/2018/student-profile-matthew-chun-0302<p>Matthew Chun understands the difficulty of bringing new technologies from conception to market. The MIT senior and Rhodes Scholar co-founded Need-A-Knee, LLC his sophomore year, after working on a class project to invent a prosthetic device that helps above-knee amputees sit cross-legged.</p>
<p>The class was EC.722 (Prosthetics for the Developing World) offered through the D-Lab. Chun’s student group worked closely with clinics in India while honing the design. The prosthesis “helps amputees sit cross-legged, which is really important culturally in a place like India, but also functionally helps them put on their pants, tie their shoes, and move in and out of tight spaces,” Chun says.</p>
<p>After creating a prototype, Chun and his classmates took it to India for testing. There, they got feedback from users and published a paper about the device for a mechanical engineering conference. While most of the students in the group moved on after the project, Chun had a reason to stay.</p>
<p>Soon after he returned to Cambridge, one of the users he tested the product with reached out to him online. “He kept asking, ‘When am I going to be able to buy this product?’” Chun recalls.</p>
<p>“There are people out there expecting that at some point they’ll be able to use [the prosthesis],” he says, recalling the moment he realized the project needed to move forward. “We’ve got to follow through with this at least to the point where all the people we’ve tested it with have a product they can use.”</p>
<p>Since then, Chun has focused on learning about bringing the device to users around the world, an endeavor which has led him to explore intellectual property law.</p>
<p>“Protecting our intellectual property for this device ended up being super important for our ability to take it to a market like India where the profit margin for prostheses is extremely low,” Chun says. “That’s what got me interested in law — the appreciation for the importance of intellectual property and a heightened awareness of the pitfalls that people who are starting innovative companies can easily fall into. … It was all incredibly interesting to me.”</p>
<p>After graduating from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in management science, Chun aims to earn a master’s degree in engineering science at Oxford University. After he returns to the United States, Chun plans to begin law school with a focus on intellectual property.</p>
<p><strong>Fostering and protecting innovation</strong></p>
<p>During his junior year, Chun began to work at Fish &amp; Richardson P.C., a global intellectual property law firm, as a technology specialist. The job, which Chun continues today, gives him firsthand experience with national and international patenting processes. Chun says the experiences he’s had on the job have “played a really important role in helping me decide that I want to start my career in intellectual property law.”</p>
<p>The same year, Chun took STS.081J (Innovation Systems for Science, Technology, Energy, Manufacturing, and Health), taught by William B. Bonvillian, former director of the MIT Washington Office and a lecturer in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society and the Department of Political Science.</p>
<p>“[The class] was very influential for me,” Chun says. “At that point, I had started branching out from pure engineering to thinking about how technologies go from research and development to scale, and I began to see how policy and finance was really important to that. Dr. Bonvillian’s course tied together all my different experiences and gave me a structured framework to think about these things.”</p>
<p>Chun also continues to work on Need-a-Knee with his co-founder, <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/marshall-scholar-matthew-cavuto-0209">Matthew Cavuto</a> ’17, as well as junior Wasay Anwer and other members from the MIT community. Chun cites the help and mentorship of Murthy Arelekatti, a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and member of the Global Engineering and Research Lab (GEAR). He also credits Amos G. Winter, an associate professor and director of the GEAR Lab, for his guidance on presenting Need-a-Knee’s progress at conferences and signing off as principal investigator on their projects. Need-a-Knee also received important help from various startup resources on campus, Chun says.</p>
<p>“There have been a ton of startup resources we’ve been able to utilize to get advice to further our project,” Chun says. They include the <a href="https://studentlife.mit.edu/ideas">MIT IDEAS Global Challenge</a>, the <a href="https://legatum.mit.edu/">Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship</a>, the <a href="http://misti.mit.edu/">MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI)</a>, and the <a href="https://sandbox.mit.edu/">MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Committing to community</strong></p>
<p>Chun values community-building and considers it a major component of his MIT education. He serves as co-editor-in-chief of <em>MIT et Spiritus</em>, a student-run publication on Christian thought. He authored an article that appeared in the publication’s inaugural issue in 2016, titled “Engineering for God and Humanity.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>“The goal of the publication is to foster healthy discussion about spirituality on campus and to think critically about how faith affects every aspect of our lives as MIT students,” Chun says. He has high hopes for the publication’s future and plans to hand over the reins to a sophomore before he graduates. Chun is also a member of MIT Cru, a faith-based student group. During his time at MIT, Chun has hosted Bible studies in his dorm room and says the community has been an integral part of his MIT experience.</p>
<p>“You see the development of your own peers from freshman through sophomore, junior, and even senior year,” Chun says. “Interacting with people who are in the same situation that I was in just a few years ago, helping them figure out their way around MIT, and providing a place for them to come talk about their struggles and successes … it’s really valuable.”</p>
<p>Additionally, Chun has wrestled competitively since his freshman year of high school and is currently the captain of the MIT wrestling team.</p>
<p>“Other than my faith, I think wrestling has really shaped my character more than anything else I’ve ever done. You just learn a lot about perseverance, discipline, and working through adversity,” Chun says. “It gave me a certain amount of mental toughness. I think that really helped carry me through my four years here and has made me the person I am today.”</p>
<p><strong>Forward thinking</strong></p>
<p>Chun has high hopes for the future ahead of him.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of room for building intellectual property frameworks in developing parts of the world where you can actually encourage innovation and the sharing of technologies,” he says.</p>
<p>While Chun intends to formally study law, he’s most interested in using it to help bring meaningful technologies to market in developing countries, whether that means he’ll be a practicing lawyer or not.</p>
<p>“I see myself starting my career in intellectual property law,” he says. “But from there, I could see myself going a few ways. I could see myself in a more policy-focused role, implementing new intellectual property systems or analyzing new technologies to determine how we regulate them and wrestle with their ethical implications. I could also see myself potentially getting involved in a meaningful startup, helping contribute my technical and legal expertise.”</p>
After graduating from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in management science, Chun aims to earn a master's degree in engineering science at Oxford University. After he returns to the United States, Chun plans to begin law school with a focus on intellectual property. Image: Ian MacLellanProfile, Students, Undergraduate, School of Engineering, Business and management, D-Lab, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E), MISTI, Mechanical engineering, Student life, Volunteering, outreach, public service, Community, Development, Global, IndiaMIT expands partnership with Imperial College Londonhttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-expands-multi-departmental-partnership-imperial-college-london-0222
Collaborative academic and research exchange programs continue to grow.Thu, 22 Feb 2018 17:50:01 -0500Julia Mongo | Global Education and Career Developmenthttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-expands-multi-departmental-partnership-imperial-college-london-0222<p>Building on the success of existing partnerships, MIT’s Global Education and Career Development (GECD) is significantly expanding its academic exchange with Imperial College London, while continuing to grow the Imperial summer research exchange. Twelve MIT departments will now take part in one or both exchanges.</p>
<p>These augmented multidepartmental exchange programs will allow even more MIT undergraduates to participate in rigorous and enriching study abroad and research experiences at Imperial, a leading U.K. university that focuses exclusively on science, engineering, medicine, and business.</p>
<p>The academic exchange is transforming from a departmental exchange spanning two departments to a multidepartmental exchange involving nine departments. GECD will start sending students on the expanded academic exchange program this coming fall.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the summer research exchange with Imperial has been growing steadily, from two departments in 2013 to 10 now.</p>
<p>“Such opportunities provide hugely valuable experiences in learning to learn and work in another culture and a different scientific environment,” says Professor Linn Hobbs of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “Students find the experience challenging, exciting, and full of potential for both personal and intellectual growth."</p>
<p>“MIT and Imperial students are ambitious, innovative and thrive in academically rigorous environments," adds&nbsp;Professor Maggie Dallman, Vice President (International) at Imperial College London. "Students on this program will be exposed to unparalleled education and research opportunities. Above all, they will learn from each other and from experiencing new academic and cultural environments. We are thrilled to be sharing new thinking and challenges with colleagues across so many departments at both universities.”</p>
<p>MIT’s partnership with Imperial began in 2013 with a summer research program for students from both schools’ departments of Materials Science and Physics. Hobbs spearheaded the exchange, working closely with Robin Grimes, professor of materials physics at Imperial and chief scientific advisor to the U.K.</p>
<p>Hobbs was also the impetus behind the academic exchange program that shortly followed, and has championed the development of both exchange programs. As part of the academic exchange, a corresponding number of Imperial students come to MIT to partake in courses and research.</p>
<p><strong>Semester/year academic exchange</strong></p>
<p>The academic exchange program offers the opportunity for two juniors each (four in the case of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) from nine departments to spend either the spring semester of their junior year or their full junior year in the corresponding department at Imperial College London. Students apply through GECD and are selected jointly by faculty in their MIT department and GECD’s Global Education staff.</p>
<p>While on the exchange, students study on Imperial’s campus, which is located in central London’s posh Kensington and Chelsea neighborhoods steps away from such cultural attractions as the Science and Industry Museum, Royal Albert Hall, and numerous music and restaurant venues. Students take academic subjects that provide MIT transfer credit for core or restricted-elected subjects in their majors. In addition, Imperial offers UROP-like experiences whenever possible.</p>
<p>The 2019 academic year will initiate a two-year pilot for the expanded exchange that will enable student participation from seven new departments. These new departments, joining Materials Science and Engineering and Nuclear Science and Engineering, are: Mechanical Engineering; Chemistry; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Chemical Engineering; Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Aeronautics and Astronautics; and Mathematics.</p>
<p>Faculty as well as students are enthusiastic about the multidepartmental expansion. “We are excited to be initiating a student exchange with Imperial College London, one of the great research institutions of the world,” says Professor Haynes Miller in the Department of Mathematics. “Imperial has an excellent undergraduate program, one that will offer our students the same kind of perspective and growth that the Cambridge-MIT Exchange did. Thirty-seven of our majors spent a year as Cambridge students over the 16 years of the program. Each and every one gained from it in deep ways, and we anticipate the same results from the Imperial project. We look forward also to hosting an equal number of Imperial students here; their different perspectives will enrich the experience of our majors here in Cambridge, Massachusetts.”</p>
<p><strong>Summer research exchange</strong></p>
<p>Since its launch in 2013, the summer research exchange with Imperial has added new departments over the years and welcomed increasing numbers of participants. The research exchange is now open to undergraduates in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics, Chemical Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Mathematics, Biological Engineering, and Nuclear Science and Engineering. Each department nominates two students to participate each year. The faculty coordinators then work closely with their counterparts at Imperial to identify labs, faculty supervisors, and advisors for participating students.</p>
<p>The research exchange runs from late June through mid-August. During those weeks, MIT also welcomes Imperial students to its campus. Last summer, 18 MIT students and 18 Imperial students participated in the exchange, including rising MIT junior Yun Chang. Chang, an AeroAstro major who is also an Emerson fellow in piano, immersed himself in his lab’s research on quadrocopter 3-D SLAM implementation, savored the cosmopolitan world of London and Imperial, and attended numerous BBC classical music promenade concerts.</p>
<p>“Doing research at Imperial College London was an amazing experience, and was especially unique in that I got to meet people from all over the world,” says Chang. “I got to do interesting research, and I was able to broaden my horizons. I am already missing walking through Kensington Gardens on my way to Imperial every morning.”</p>
<p>MIT’s UROP office is an integral partner with GECD’s Global Education team for this program. As a co-sponsor, UROP provides student funding through hourly wages and an airfare stipend, while GECD funds MIT students’ accommodations in London.</p>
<p><strong>Looking forward to future collaboration</strong></p>
<p>“MIT is looking forward to a long-term partnership with Imperial College London,” says Julie Maddox, assistant dean for Global Education at GECD. “I’ve seen students profiting from their academic and research experiences at Imperial over the years and have been inspired by how they speak about their intellectual and personal growth. Likewise, Imperial students who come to our campus greatly contribute to our classes and labs and are enthusiastic about their experiences here.”</p>
<p>“I’m thrilled that we succeeded in growing both the academic and research exchanges with Imperial so more students from across MIT will be able to engage in these important opportunities,” adds Malgorzata Hedderick, associate dean for Global Education at GECD. “Imperial has been a very supportive partner over the years and we are excited to continue this mutually beneficial relationship. Huge thanks go to the MIT and Imperial faculty; none of this would have been possible without their leadership, dedication, and involvement.”&nbsp;</p>
Yun Chang, an AeroAstro junior, took time to explore London while doing research at Imperial last summer.Photo courtesy of the studentsGlobal Education and Career Development, International initiatives, Classes and programs, Students, Student life, Undergraduate, United KingdomUndergraduate financial aid boosted for 2018-19http://news.mit.edu/2018/undergraduate-financial-aid-boosted-2018-19-0221
Financial aid increase of 9.6 percent to offset 3.9 percent rise in tuition and fees.Wed, 21 Feb 2018 17:00:00 -0500MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2018/undergraduate-financial-aid-boosted-2018-19-0221<p>MIT will further boost its undergraduate financial aid budget for the 2018-19 academic year to support a dynamic community of talented students and their families. The 9.6 percent increase in financial aid will counterbalance a 3.9 percent increase in tuition and fees.</p>
<p>The Institute will commit $129.9 million for financial aid next year. The net cost for an average MIT student receiving need-based aid will be $23,539 in 2018 — only 10 percent higher than it was almost 20 years ago in 2000 ($21,346).</p>
<p>“We have a long-standing commitment to expanding our financial aid resources,” says Vice Chancellor Ian A. Waitz. “We want to make sure that students and families, especially those who might think we are out of reach in terms of cost, understand that MIT is welcoming and accessible. By removing barriers to talent, we enable exceptional students to attend regardless of need. And once here, the level of financial aid and other resources MIT provides allows students to focus on their education.”</p>
<p>Based upon a <a href="http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/papers/coll_mrc_paper.pdf">study by the Equality of Opportunity Project</a> (analyzing data from 30 million college students from 1999 to 2013), MIT enrolled the highest proportion of students who come from families with annual income of $20,000 or less, relative to its peers. MIT also ranked first in the report’s overall mobility index, compared to the same group. The index measures the likelihood that a student will move up two or more income quintiles after obtaining a degree.</p>
<p>The estimated average MIT scholarship for students receiving financial aid next year is $47,251. More than 30 percent of MIT undergraduates receive aid sufficient to allow them to attend the Institute tuition-free.</p>
<p>For undergraduates who do not receive need-based financial aid, tuition and fees will be $51,832 next year. With average housing and dining costs included, students not receiving financial aid will pay $67,342.</p>
<p>MIT is one of only five American colleges and universities that currently admit all undergraduate students without regard to their financial circumstances; award all financial aid based on need; and meet the full demonstrated financial need of all admitted students.</p>
<p>In the past few years, the MIT Admissions Office has enhanced communications and outreach to raise awareness about the accessibility and affordability of the Institute. In addition, other efforts such as the <a href="https://oeop.mit.edu/">Office of Engineering Outreach Programs</a>, targeting underserved high school students interested in science and engineering fields, continue to demonstrate success: Giving participants a firsthand MIT experience helps to build their confidence and encourages them to apply to MIT or similar institutions in greater numbers.</p>
<p>For students with family incomes under $90,000 a year and typical assets, MIT guarantees that scholarship funding from all sources will allow them to attend the Institute tuition-free.&nbsp;While the Institute’s financial aid program primarily supports students from lower- and middle-income households, even families earning more than $250,000 may qualify for need-based financial aid based on their family circumstances, such as if two or more children are in college at the same time.</p>
<p>About 57 percent of MIT’s 4,547 undergraduates receive need-based financial aid from the Institute and 18 percent receive Federal Pell Grants, which generally go to U.S. students with family incomes below $60,000.</p>
<p>MIT treats the Pell grant in a unique way to further support low income students. Unlike most other colleges and universities, MIT allows students to use the Pell grant to offset what they are expected to contribute through work-study during the semester and the summer.</p>
<p>Assistance on campus also goes beyond traditional financial aid, ensuring that all incoming students can take advantage of hallmark MIT opportunities such as participating in paid research through the <a href="http://uaap.mit.edu/research-exploration/urop">Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program</a>; engaging in international and public service internships; and pursuing entrepreneurial ideas with appropriate mentorship and seed funding.</p>
<p>In 2017, 71 percent of MIT seniors graduated with no debt; of those who did assume debt to finance their education, the median indebtedness at graduation was $16,192.</p>
Photo: Maia Weinstock/MIT News OfficeEducation, teaching, academics, Financial aid, Administration, Student life, Students, Tuition, Undergraduate, MIT CorporationMIT launches SafeRide OnDemand shuttle pilot programhttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-launches-saferide-ondemand-shuttle-pilot-program-0216
Door-to-door late-night ride service was developed in response to student requests.Fri, 16 Feb 2018 10:30:00 -0500Kristin Lund | MIT Facilitieshttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-launches-saferide-ondemand-shuttle-pilot-program-0216<p>How do you support student safety with an app? By establishing a technology-driven, on-demand safe ride system for students in need of late-night transportation.</p>
<p>On Monday, Feb. 12, the MIT Parking and Transportation Office launched the SafeRide OnDemand Shuttle pilot. This program — developed in collaboration with the Graduate Student Council (GSC), Undergraduate Association (UA), and the Division of Student Life (DSL) — enhances after-hours shuttle services for members of the MIT community. The parking office plans to run the pilot through the beginning of June, when it will assess its effectiveness.</p>
<p>SafeRide OnDemand aims to enhance student safety by reducing the need for students to walk to and wait at shuttle stops during late-night hours, particularly during inclement weather. It covers the MIT campus and surrounding neighborhoods, as well as some Boston, Brookline, and Somerville neighborhoods where MIT students live. By operating with quieter gas-powered vans, the service is able to provide more complete coverage in Boston, encompassing neighborhoods where diesel-powered shuttle buses are not allowed to idle.</p>
<p>“In OnDemand mode, it’s designed to be a shuttle when you need it, where you need it,” explains Tom Giannino, operations manager for the Parking and Transportation Office. “Students and staff can use an app to request a ride, and we will gather their feedback throughout the pilot program.”</p>
<p><strong>SafeRide is on-demand after 11 p.m.</strong></p>
<p>Currently, SafeRide service begins at 6 p.m. every evening. As a fixed-route mode of transportation, the shuttles travel along predetermined routes making regular stops. On Sunday through Wednesday, the SafeRide shuttle service wraps up at 2:30 a.m.; on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the shuttle is available for an additional hour, up until 3:30 a.m.</p>
<p>Now, with SafeRide OnDemand, the shuttles switch into on-demand mode from 11 p.m. until the end of service each night, with “last call” being 15 minutes before the end of service. To use SafeRide OnDemand, riders first need to download the TransLoc Rider app or access the online Rider OnDemand service using their Kerberos credentials. Then, instead of waiting for the shuttle at a shuttle stop, riders can request a pickup and drop-off at any location within MIT’s designated SafeRide OnDemand zone.</p>
<p>SafeRide OnDemand uses 14-passenger vans to provide door-to-door shared rides similar to uberPOOL or Lyft. As with the fixed-route shuttles, on-demand service includes accessible vans that can be requested when the ride is booked. The designated SafeRide OnDemand zone is a slightly expanded version of the areas covered by the fixed-route shuttles earlier in the evening, made possible by the use of vans instead of shuttle buses.</p>
<p><strong>Expanding the late-night zone</strong></p>
<p>To obtain permission to extend shuttle services into new areas, members of the MIT team — including Sarah Gallop from the MIT Office of Government and Community Relations — worked closely with Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB), and the Back Bay Association. MIT then successfully petitioned the Boston Transportation Department for approval of the new service.</p>
<p>“For SafeRide, we are interested in improving its usability during late night by having the shuttle travel beyond the predetermined stops,” explains Orpheus Chatzivasileiou, a chemical engineering PhD candidate and GSC secretary, speaking of the work of the GSC Transportation Subcommittee. “We helped survey the needs of graduate students, communicate them to the larger working group, and participated in meetings — for example, with the NABB — aimed at increasing the SafeRide range in Boston.”</p>
<p>Alexa Martin, a third-year mathematics major and UA vice president, says that they were inspired by on-demand transportation systems at other universities and notes that students have been involved in every step of the process to establish MIT’s new service. “With this new on-demand system, no student will have to walk back to their residence at night, alone, or in the cold,” Martin notes, “which is a really positive change for MIT.”</p>
<p><strong>On-demand pilot operating until June</strong></p>
<p>The OnDemand shuttle pilot program will operate until the beginning of June, with the hope that it will become a permanent feature on campus. To help evaluate the pilot program, the Parking and Transportation Office plans to gather comments and feedback from MIT riders and neighbors over the next several months. A simple <a href="http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/feedback.shtml" target="_blank">feedback form</a> has been developed and posted for members of the community to share their experiences.</p>
<p>Throughout the pilot period, the MIT team expects to gather data on rider usage and numbers of on-demand trips, as well as data on questions and reported concerns.</p>
<p>“For students, I think this on-demand system is going to have a really significant impact,” Martin says.</p>
<p>“We hope to be able to serve people who are not served well by the current stops,” Chatzivasileiou adds. “We aim to allow students returning from the lab or going from one location to another within the zone to be able to do so without fear of missing a shuttle and having to wait for the next one.”</p>
<p>“We take student safety seriously,” says Suzy Nelson, vice president and dean for student life. “After hearing from many students that flexible late-night transportation is a priority, I am happy that the work of this dedicated team of students and staff has resulted in what I hope will be a great service for the entire MIT community.”</p>
<p><strong>SafeRide schedule</strong></p>
<p>Members of the MIT community can access SafeRide shuttle services during the following times:</p>
<p>Fixed-route mode</p>
<ul>
<li>Shuttles circulate to assigned stops on a predetermined schedule</li>
<li>Sunday to Saturday, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.</li>
</ul>
<p>OnDemand mode</p>
<ul>
<li>Riders use app or online service to request pickup and drop-off within the zone</li>
<li>Sunday to Wednesday, 11 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.</li>
<li>Thursday to Saturday, 11 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.</li>
</ul>
<p>For information about the program and to provide feedback, riders can visit the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/safe_ride.html" target="_blank">SafeRide Shuttle page</a>.</p>
The MIT Parking and Transportation Office has launched a pilot program to provide a new SafeRide OnDemand shuttle on the MIT campus starting at 11 p.m. each night. Faculty, students, and staff can request door-to-door rides within the SafeRide zone using the TransLoc Rider mobile application or website. From 6-11 p.m. each night, the SafeRide shuttles will continue to circulate along fixed routes to provide shuttle service.Photo: Melody Craven/MIT FacilitiesTransportation, Facilities, Student life, Students, Faculty, Staff, Community, Cambridge, Boston and region, Campus servicesMIT Hillel receives Outstanding Campus Awardhttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-hillel-receives-outstanding-campus-award-0215
Fresh off their previous award the year prior, MIT Hillel continues to be recognized for excellent work and increased student engagement.Thu, 15 Feb 2018 15:40:01 -0500Isabel Stewart | Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-hillel-receives-outstanding-campus-award-0215<p>MIT Hillel has been recognized once again at the Hillel International Global Assembly, which was held in Denver Dec. 4-7. Fresh off their previous award the year prior for strengthening the global Hillel movement, MIT Hillel took home another honor — the Phillip H. and Susan Rudd Cohen Outstanding Campus Award, putting them in the top two Hillels in the movement.</p>
<p>“It was a really exciting conference,” says Rabbi Michelle Fisher, executive director of MIT Hillel. “This was the first time that International Hillel said, ‘We’re not bringing in some main speaker, and we’re going to use all the talent that we have in the field. ... All the sessions are going to be led and hopefully co-led by people throughout the movement.”</p>
<p>Every member of MIT Hillel staff present at the assembly taught a seminar. Fisher says that it was the perfect scenario for growth across the board. “We were being honored on day one for being outstanding, and we were then showing the pieces of our success and teaching them outward to everyone else. ... All of this is our gift to the field.”</p>
<p>The Outstanding Campus Award recognizes Hillels that engage 70 percent of Jewish undergraduates at least once. MIT Hillel has surpassed that benchmark, says Fisher. “We know over 80 percent of our undergraduates by name and story. So it’s not just their email and we’ve invited them to something. ... We’ve had a one-on-one conversation.”</p>
<p>MIT Hillel’s success is hard-earned. MIT students have lots of interests and heavy workloads so “helping students (A) desire and (B) make the time to be involved in furthering their Jewish identity” is a constant struggle, says Fisher.</p>
<p>MIT Hillel’s response is to combat students’ busy schedules with a mix of consistency, community, and low-commitment activities. One such offering is their weekly Shabbat dinners. Students can stop by Friday evenings to spend time with other Jewish students and are encouraged to bring friends, regardless of their beliefs. Students only need to “take a break for a couple hours on Friday night to come to a Shabbat dinner and say, ‘For two hours I’m not working on this p-set and I’m going to see my friends and have a little bit of community.’ That’s a Jewish message and it’s a self-care message,” says Fisher.</p>
<p>MIT Hillel also supports Do it Yourself events where students can, for example, host their own Shabbat dinner with friends outside the “capital H Hillel community” that Director of Birthright and Israel Engagement Shoshana Gibbor says students can find daunting.</p>
<p>“We’re just trying to create and sustain Jewish life across campus for students and help them curate programming that is exciting for them and meaningful for them,” says Gibbor. “We’re always trying to make sure that at base level it has a community-building functionality, that the students who are running these programs have support and leadership skills that they can walk away with, and that there’s some sort of educational content so that they can explain what they’re doing through a Jewish lens.”</p>
<p>Gibbor believes that working closely with students fosters the sense of community that’s needed to keep them coming back: “I love having conversations with students, just check-ins about life and their semester and what they did during their externship over IAP. ... Then two or three weeks later I might read an article related to some crazy thing that they did, and I’ll bring it up to them, and a week after that they might decide to come to Shabbat dinner because I invited them to come and hang out with me and tell me more about this cool work that they did.”</p>
<p>Fisher says MIT Hillel owes all of its success to its team and the students it serves. “I’m thrilled with what the staff’s been able to do and what we’ve been able to do. That our students feel that Hillel is part of their MIT experience is just great.”</p>
MIT Hillel accepts the Phillip and Susan Rudd Cohen Outstanding Campus Award at the Hillel International Global Assembly held in Denver.Photo courtesy of MIT Hillel.Community, Awards, honors and fellowships, Students, Student life, Staff, ReligionSealing the cracks in public educationhttp://news.mit.edu/2018/student-profile-yazmin-guzman-0215
MIT senior Yazmin Guzman wants to change the educational landscape to provide opportunities to all K-12 students.
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 23:59:59 -0500Fatima Husain | MIT News correspondenthttp://news.mit.edu/2018/student-profile-yazmin-guzman-0215
<p>With one foot in a dual bachelor’s and master’s program in urban studies and the other in an array of educational and community outreach programs, Yazmin Guzman applies the same careful coordination she perfected as a Mexican folkloric dancer to her life at MIT.</p>
<p>The senior from Wichita, Kansas, is determined to gain the experiences she needs to begin a career that will help seal cracks in the public education system.</p>
<p>Guzman, who is fluent in both English and Spanish, experienced one of those cracks firsthand during elementary school. “I remember one time [the school staff] pulled me out of class to translate for someone else because they didn’t have any translators. I was 7 years old,” Guzman recalls. “This would be a continuous thing they would do because there was a new wave of Latino immigrants coming in, and they were unprepared.”</p>
<p>Soon after, Guzman moved into an academic program for gifted and talented students, and she noticed that few other Latino students were in her classes. “I wasn’t really as in touch with my culture in that school,” Guzman says. When she arrived at MIT, she says it was the first time she was exposed to the idea that Latino students could succeed in academia.</p>
<p>Eager to connect with other Latino students, Guzman joined La Casa, a living community at MIT that celebrates Latino culture and the Spanish language. “It was a really good place for me to be,” Guzman says. “Living there was a huge defining moment. Meeting the people [at La Casa] was the biggest change in my life.”</p>
<p>“My heart is there,” she adds.</p>
<p>Guzman says the community helped her refine her focus in education. Community dinners, discussions, and hangouts enabled members to share their own educational experiences with others, highlighting for her the discrepancies in educational opportunities for Latino students in public schools. Guzman, who is pursuing a minor in economics, is also inspired by work of economist Roland G. Fryer, Jr. “He’s doing all this amazing work with the black-white achievement gap,” Guzman says. “I want to do something like that but [related to] Latino and white people.”</p>
<p><strong>Meaningful mentorship</strong></p>
<p>“I tell people that my life passion is to help other people pursue their passions,” Guzman says. She does this in part through Amphibious Achievement, a dual athletic-academic mentoring program that brings underresourced students to MIT each Sunday to develop skills in swimming and rowing, and to take part in reading, mathematics, and SAT tutoring with their mentors. This year, Guzman is the director of academics for the program, and she hopes to encourage the development of hands-on learning activities for the students.</p>
<p>Guzman recalls a recent experience she had with her current advisee, Kevin, whom she has mentored for the past two years. “He was practicing to get into one of the Boston examination schools, so we just sat for six hours and studied [together for the exam]. … The fact that I was able to provide him with something he wouldn’t have access to otherwise is one of the best parts of being a mentor to him and being in Amphibious Achievement.”</p>
<p>Guzman is also the director of outreach and publicity for SHINE for Girls, a student-run afterschool program that teaches middle school students mathematics and dance. And, she is involved in dynaMIT, a week-long summer science program for low-income middle school students.</p>
<p>“What I’m really interested in is helping underresourced youth, specifically minority and low-income students,” Guzman says.</p>
<p><strong>Educational experiences</strong></p>
<p>In addition to working extensively in mentorship and educational outreach, Guzman recently joined the Committee on Academic Performance (CAP), which monitors the academic performance of undergraduate students at the Institute. She spent Independent Activities Period learning the processes and procedures of the committee.</p>
<p>“A lot of my friends struggled a lot throughout MIT. I’ve had friends who have had to take academic leave,” Guzman says. “So what I really wanted to do was advocate for students and give a different perspective as someone who has had direct contact with [students reviewed by the committee].” Guzman says working on the committee has given her insight into academic administration.</p>
<p>Guzman wants to use these experiences to help her achieve her goal of becoming a superintendent of a school district or founder of a charter school. In order to further prepare herself, Guzman also aims to teach middle school after she graduates with a master’s degree in city planning.</p>
<p>“I want to become a teacher for a little bit because the ultimate end game is to make an impact on education policy,” Guzman says, “but I feel like in order to do that, I need to have the experience in the classroom.”</p>
<p><strong>Community Building</strong></p>
<p>“I’m really interested in how communities occupy a space and make it their own,” Guzman says. As part of her potential thesis project, Guzman hopes to create a photo series depicting the communities in the Latino Cultural Center, the Black Student Union, the Rainbow Lounge, and MIT SPXCE Intercultural Center. Guzman wants to focus on groups in higher education institutions that have been historically marginalized.</p>
<p>Guzman credits her advisor, Justin Steil, the Charles H. and Ann E. Spaulding Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, for helping her direct her focus toward education inequality and the role communities play in education.</p>
<p>In her urban planning studies, Guzman looks at how schools are anchored in communities. “Things that go on in someone’s neighborhood are very much linked to how they perform in school,” Guzman says. Making sure education provides students with viable opportunities involves “addressing [neighborhood and community issues] and figuring out some way to develop both the community and school at the same time.”</p>
<p>“There are a lot of kids that are falling through the cracks that could definitely make it. And for some reason they’re not,” Guzman says. “And so that’s what I really focus on. … I want to focus on students specifically in K through 12 who don’t even make it to the 12.”</p>
<p>Guzman’s commitment to younger students inspired the photo-based format of her potential thesis. “That’s why I wanted to do photography,” Guzman says, “because I’m doing something I want people to actually learn from. … I want it to be something that’s accessible.”</p>
<p>As part of her community development efforts at MIT, Guzman is also an active member of Mujeres Latinas, a cultural student group focused on social and professional advancement of Latinas in and around the MIT community. The group <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2018/mindhandheart-announces-record-number-innovation-fund-winners-0108">recently received</a> an MIT MindHandHeart Grant to establish the Hermanas Unidas Initiative, to bring together Latina undergraduate students, graduate students, and MIT faculty and staff to foster an academic and cultural community for Latinas across campus.</p>
<p>Even though Guzman’s time is divided among her academics, mentorship, teaching, and community-building, she maintains a laser focus on education.</p>
<p>“I’m passionate about people … reaching their highest potentials,” Guzman says, “I’ll help them do that. That’s all I want to do.”</p>
With one foot in a dual bachelor’s and master’s program in urban studies and the other in an array of educational and community outreach programs, Yazmin Guzman applies the same careful coordination she perfected as a Mexican folkloric dancer to her life at MIT.
Image: Jake BelcherProfile, Students, Undergraduate, School of Architecture and Planning, Education, teaching, academics, Leadership, Student life, Urban studies and planning, Volunteering, outreach, public service, Women, K-12 education, Community, AdministrationWork continues toward a more diverse, inclusive MIThttp://news.mit.edu/2018/progress-continues-toward-more-diverse-inclusive-mit-0207
Many of the changes recommended by black students in 2015 have been implemented; departmental discussions are ongoing.Wed, 07 Feb 2018 21:13:16 -0500Kathy Wren | MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2018/progress-continues-toward-more-diverse-inclusive-mit-0207<p>Since a watershed meeting just over two years ago, when representatives from the Black Students’ Union and the Black Graduate Student Association met with President L. Rafael Reif, the administration has introduced a number of changes intended to enhance diversity and inclusion at MIT.</p>
<p>These changes have been guided by two sets of recommendations, one from the BSU and one from the BGSA, that emerged from this initial meeting. Many of the recommendations — particularly those involving orientation for incoming students, mental health services, implicit bias training, financial aid, and student surveys and data collection — have now been partially or completely implemented. Discussions are under way to address other recommendations for department-level actions, administration leaders have told <em>MIT News</em>.</p>
<p>The scope of individual recommendations has varied — from enhancing diversity orientation for incoming students to developing and implementing a 10-year plan to increase the number of graduate students from underrepresented minority groups — and thus so has the timeframe for responding to them, according to Vice President Kirk Kolenbrander.</p>
<p>“Many changes could be implemented relatively quickly, and they have been. Others must be addressed across departments that vary greatly in their size, organizational structure, and standard operating procedures, so these require creative thinking and a sustained effort,” Kolenbrander says.</p>
<p><strong>A multifaceted response</strong></p>
<p>Kolenbrander has convened an Academic Council working group, consisting of students, faculty, and senior officers, dedicated to addressing these recommendations. With DiOnetta Jones Crayton, the associate dean for undergraduate education and director of the Office of Minority Education, he has also convened another group to align staff who are advancing diversity and inclusion issues across the Institute. These groups have worked alongside Ed Bertschinger, the Institute’s community and equity officer, and Judy “JJ” Jackson, who joined MIT in 2016 as the diversity and inclusion officer.</p>
<p>The BSU and BGSA remain engaged in following up on their recommendations. The BSU’s political action committee, for example, is planning a survey to learn more about how the administration’s responses thus far have impacted students.</p>
<p>“MIT was very responsive and we’re very happy with the actions that have been taken, but we still want to make sure that the Institute remains accountable to the commitment that it’s made,” says third-year student Gabrielle Ballard, who co-chairs the BSU with third-year student Anthony Rolland and chairs the BSU political action committee.</p>
<p>“I hope that MIT will continue to engage with the students in order to figure out what the best plan is moving forward,” says Tsehai Grell, a BGSA member who has served on the group’s executive board and helped to draft the recommendations in 2015. “I’d like to see [Institute leadership] make sure student involvement continues. It has to be a unified effort. Everybody needs to be involved.”</p>
<p>Still other members of the MIT community have responded to the black student groups’ recommendations as well. For example, graduate student Ty Austin leads the diversity and inclusion subcommittee of the Graduate Student Council, which recently organized a <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-graduate-student-council-launches-department-diversity-and-inclusion-initiative-0129">network of students</a> whose goal is to further diversity and inclusion efforts in academic departments.</p>
<p>When the BSU and BGSA presented their recommendations, the administration also invited other members of the MIT community to share additional ideas for making MIT a more welcoming, inclusive place. More than 90 are now under consideration or being actively addressed. For example, the Institute recently received permission from state authorities to launch a pilot program with four all-gender bathrooms on campus.</p>
<p><strong>Enhancing mental health and counseling services</strong></p>
<p>Both the BSU and BGSA have put forward recommendations for enhancing mental health and counseling services and hiring staff with expertise in race-based traumatic stress.</p>
<p>In October 2016, MIT <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/karen-singleton-named-mental-health-counseling-service-chief-1020">hired Karen Singleton</a>, who specializes in multicultural psychology and trauma, as chief of Mental Health and Counseling and associate medical director at MIT Medical. Three clinicians with expertise in race-based trauma have also been appointed: Cecil Webster Jr., Leslie Langston, and Erik Marks.</p>
<p>Recent activities by Mental Health and Counseling staff have included antioppression training for staff; the formation of a multicultural competency counseling team; development of a workshop series on the imposter phenomenon; a biweekly event called Let’s Chat@OME, which allows students to drop into the Office of Minority Education and talk with mental health and counseling staff; and biweekly therapy groups for graduate students of color.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Orientation and implicit bias training</strong></p>
<p>The Office of Multicultural Programs and the Office of Graduate Education (OGE) made a number of changes to the orientation programs for undergraduate and graduate students in the last two years.</p>
<p>In fall 2016 and 2017, incoming first-year students participated in small focus-group conversations on diversity and inclusion, facilitated by a trained conversation leader. MIT also began making modifications in fall 2016 to the graduate student orientation, including a dedicated networking reception for graduate students from underrepresented minority groups to meet senior leaders, faculty, and returning graduate students, and to learn about campus resources. The graduate students of color welcome planning committee is composed of graduate students, and OGE staff are beginning to discuss additional changes for 2018.</p>
<p>Implicit bias training, which the BGSA recommended for faculty, staff, and students, was launched in 2017 in several areas of the Institute, including the Institute Community and Equity Office, the Teaching and Learning Lab, Human Resources, Academic Council, and some academic departments.</p>
<p><strong>Surveys and data collection</strong></p>
<p>Other student recommendations related to collecting and sharing data about the MIT student body, broken down by race and other identity groups, could inform other efforts to further diversity and inclusion at the Institute.</p>
<p>These recommendations have led, for example, to the publication of a <a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/diversity.html">diversity dashboard</a>, in cooperation with the Institutional Research section of the Office of the Provost. Targeted questions have also been added to key student <a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/surveys/?">surveys</a> and the results made public. And, the Office of the Registrar is publishing a report on the number of underrepresented minority students by course and year on its <a href="http://web.mit.edu/registrar/stats/">enrollment page</a>, which is available to everyone in the MIT community with an MIT Certificate.</p>
<p>The BSU has also met with Stu Schmill, the dean of admissions and student financial services, to review data collected by that office and work together to plan new efforts to increase acceptance rates for students from underrepresented minority groups.</p>
<p><strong>Financial aid</strong></p>
<p>The BSU recommended increasing financial aid commitments to at least match peer institutions, reaffirming MIT’s commitment to keeping MIT education accessible through need-blind admission and a generous need-based financial system.</p>
<p>Over the last two years, MIT has <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/financial-aid-gains-offset-tuition-increase-1221">increased financial aid expenditures</a> by $23.4 million, from $97.3 million in FY16 to $120.7 million projected for FY18. The Institute has also reduced student self-help levels from $5,500 to $3,400 a year. MIT is one of only five U.S. colleges and universities that currently admit all undergraduate students without regard to their financial circumstances, award all financial aid based on need, and meet the full demonstrated financial need of all admitted students.</p>
<p>MIT continues to be unique in allowing low-income students to use Pell Grants to reduce or eliminate their self-help and summer savings expectations, and it guarantees that any family earning $90,000 or less will have scholarships that at least cover tuition. This guarantee serves more than one-third of MIT’s students.</p>
<p><strong>Recruitment and retention</strong></p>
<p>Both student groups have made recommendations around increasing diversity among graduate students and faculty, which involve a longer timeline. The BGSA, for example, recommended developing and implementing a 10-year plan to increase the number of underrepresented minority graduate students, in particular black graduate students.</p>
<p>“One thing that stands out to me is that to really increase the number of faculty members of color, we have to increase the number of graduate students of color. In the 2016-17 academic year, for example, only about 1 percent of MIT’s graduate students were black. We’d like to see a very concerted, coordinated effort to recruit graduate students of color,” says Candace Ross, a member and former president of the BGSA.</p>
<p>Thus far, every academic department has posted an <a href="http://diversity.mit.edu/departmental-statements/">online statement</a> affirming its commitment to students’ health, diversity, and inclusion. Implementation of a longer-term plan is more complex and requires departmental customization, as MIT departments range widely in terms of size, organization, and recruitment and retention practices.&nbsp; A review of personnel in each department, to assess what may be feasible, is being considered, according to Jackson.</p>
<p>The BSU is keen to see how the departmental statements are put into practice, says Ballard: “Holistically, the goal would be seeing more students and faculty from underrepresented groups in those departments, and seeing [inclusionary practices extend even further], for example when professors are talking about people who have contributed to the field. It’s important for everyone to see that there’s a diverse range of voices that are in the STEM and humanities fields.”</p>
<p>“This is something that going forward we want to keep in mind, that diversity and inclusion doesn’t just stop at who you see. It’s what you’re talking about, the conversations you’re having,” she adds.</p>
<p>OGE has addressed the BGSA recommendations on multiple fronts. Staff have implemented a Graduate Diversity Ambassador program, increasing MIT’s presence at <a href="https://odge.mit.edu/undergraduate/conferences/">recruitment conferences</a> across the country and providing personalized advice on MIT graduate applications to alumni of the <a href="https://odge.mit.edu/undergraduate/msrp/">MIT Summer Research Program</a> (MSRP General) and <a href="https://odge.mit.edu/undergraduate/converge/">CONVERGE</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>With input from the Office of the General Counsel, OGE implemented an <a href="https://gradadmissions.mit.edu/about/diversity-intiatives/fee-waiver">expanded fee waiver policy</a> during the 2016 application cycle to remove potential financial barriers for applicants who may not have considered MIT.</p>
<p>OGE is also renewing its commitment to the University Center for Exemplary Mentoring, which provides professional development activities to prepare doctoral students from underrepresented minorities for careers in academia.&nbsp;The OGE’s “Ignite Your Vision,” a monthly discussion series facilitated primarily by MIT faculty and alumni of color, touches upon general professional-development topics and provides an opportunity for graduate students to learn from the experiences of representatives from diverse career paths in industry, education, health care, and government. &nbsp;</p>
<p>In recent months,&nbsp;OGE has hired new team members to serve MIT’s graduate student community. Assistant Dean Suraiya Baluch joined the Graduate Personal Support office, and is helping to expand the support network for graduate students. Two diversity staff positions have been filled in order to focus on maintaining MIT’s diversity recruitment efforts and provide bandwidth for the office to revamp its involvement in professional development.&nbsp;OGE plans to continue its collaboration with several academic departments and administrative offices at MIT, including Global Education and Career Development, to devise a targeted approach to addressing the BGSA’s recommendation that the Institute provide tailored resources to help graduate students from underrepresented minority groups compete successfully on academic and professional job markets.</p>
<p><strong>A sustained effort</strong></p>
<p>Members of the MIT community who have been engaged in furthering diversity and inclusion at the Institute agree that this work will need to continue for years to come.</p>
<p>“The students have not given up on these recommendations; they are not going to let them disappear,” Crayton says. “We have to continue to be thoughtful about them. If there are things we cannot do, or cannot do right away, we have to be very transparent about sharing that information. That’s what will build stronger relationships.”</p>
<p>Work on inclusion is inherently a constant process, Jackson says.</p>
<p>“When I look at these recommendations, what I see the students are looking for is an equitable opportunity for everyone to be free and unfettered to do their best at MIT and make a contribution to the community,” she says. “Inclusion does not first demand that you be like somebody else. It says whoever you are, bring the best of you into the community and let’s together help to make MIT a better place if MIT is going to help make a better world.”</p>
Photo: Jake BelcherCommunity, Diversity and inclusion, Faculty, Students, Staff, Student life, History, Policy, Education, teaching, academics, Admissions, Administration, Undergraduate, graduate, Graduate, postdoctoralAfter 16 years as heads of house, Anne and Bill McCants to step down from Burton Connerhttp://news.mit.edu/2018/after-16-years-heads-house-mccantses-step-down-burton-conner-0126
Search will start soon for new live-in faculty to help lead undergraduate community.Fri, 26 Jan 2018 15:35:01 -0500Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2018/after-16-years-heads-house-mccantses-step-down-burton-conner-0126<p>Following a 16-year head-of-house career that spanned three decades and two residence halls, Professor Anne E. C. McCants and her husband Bill have announced that they will step down from their post in Burton Conner House (BC) at the end of this academic year.</p>
<p>In an email to all heads of house earlier this month, Professor McCants shared that she is “starting a three-year term as the president of the International Economic History Association, a position which I realize is going to require a lot more travel of me than is feasible while serving as head of a residence hall as large and complex as BC.”</p>
<p>Vice President and Dean for Student Life Suzy Nelson offered praise for the McCants’ work as heads of house. “Their experience and perspective have been a great support to me and the entire head of house community, and their commitment to the students of BC will serve as an example for future heads of house to emulate,” says Nelson.</p>
<p>McCants is director of the Concourse program for first-year students and a professor of history in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS). Her research and teaching focus on the social and economic history of Europe in the Middle Ages and early modern period. She was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow in 2004 and is a recipient of numerous honors including the Levitan Prize to support innovative and creative scholarship in SHASS. Also, she has twice won the Arthur C. Smith Award for exemplary service to undergraduate life and learning.</p>
<p>Anne and Bill McCants first became heads of house in Green Hall (W5) when it was a residence for women graduate students. They supported the community from 1992 to 2002, a period they recall as “wonderful.” After Professor McCants served consecutive terms as head of History at MIT, the couple found themselves missing the direct student interaction they enjoyed in Green Hall and were inspired to join BC in 2012.</p>
<p>Since BC is a cook-for-yourself community, food is a consistent theme in their reflections on the last six years. In an email, the McCantses said, “Every year, we have invited each of the nine floors to the head of house apartment for a home-cooked dinner. Attendance has been high and enthusiastic over all six years.” They particularly remember BC’s annual apple bake event as a showcase for the community’s “creativity, collaboration, and generosity at its best. Great food, fun, and art.”</p>
<p>“Anne and Bill McCants cared deeply about student well-being,” says junior Katie Fisher, the BC president. “Burton Conner residents will especially remember them for hosting floor dinners and a finals study break in their apartment, as well as their brownie recipe. This dorm will not be the same without them.”</p>
<p>Burton Conner House (W51) is located at 410 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1939 and houses more than 350 undergraduates. According to its website, BC “consists of nine floors — five on the Burton side, four on the Conner side — each of which has its own unique personality.” The floors are made up of suites — mostly coed with between four and nine residents each — that contain a bathroom and a kitchen. House amenities include lounges and conference rooms, music rooms, a snack bar, recreational table games, a weight room, barbecue pits, and elevators.</p>
<p>But for the McCantses, BC is about much more than the building and its contents. “This role has afforded us opportunities for one-to-one interactions with students in times of both joy and crisis, challenge and repose, that are truly unforgettable,” they wrote.</p>
<p>Those interested in becoming a head of house should email <a href="http://web.mit.edu/bin/cgicso?query=alias%3DJ-robinson2" target="_blank">Judy Robinson</a>, senior associate dean for residential education, for more information. The search process will kick off with an informal reception on Monday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. in BC for interested tenured faculty. Potential candidates will be able to meet current heads of house and staff to discuss this singular opportunity. A search committee of current heads of house, staff, and students will review candidate qualifications, vet potential finalists with BC residents, and make recommendations to Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart and Dean Nelson. The final selection will be made by Barnhart in time for the appointees to relocate to their new home before the fall term.</p>
<p>Please email <a href="http://web.mit.edu/bin/cgicso?options=general&amp;query=Gaskins" target="_blank">Kaye Gaskins</a> to RSVP for the reception by Feb. 9. Those who cannot attend but would still like to apply should email a current CV and cover letter to Robinson explaining why they would like to be BC’s head of house.</p>
Burton Conner HousePhoto: Holly HinmanStudent life, Undergraduate, Residential life, Faculty, Campus buildings and architecture, Community, Administration, SHASS, History, HousingConstruction begins on a new student residence on Vassar Streethttp://news.mit.edu/2018/construction-begins-new-student-residence-vassar-street-0123
A next-generation home for MIT undergraduates is underway.Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:00:01 -0500Kristin Lund | MIT Facilitieshttp://news.mit.edu/2018/construction-begins-new-student-residence-vassar-street-0123<p>Working together in a process that is now familiar at MIT, a collaborative team of architects, students, and staff from the Division of Student Life and Campus Construction has developed a next-generation design for the new student residence on Vassar Street.</p>
<p>The new building, recently approved by the Cambridge Planning Board, will be constructed on the site of the West Garage parking facility and is expected to be open by the fall of 2020. Site-enabling activities began in September, and the demolition of the West Garage begins this month.</p>
<p>New student housing and housing renewal are current top priorities for MIT. The Institute’s commitment is reflected in additional projects such as the planned construction of a new <a href="http://orgchart.mit.edu/node/5/letters_to_community/expanding-graduate-student-housing">graduate residence</a> in Kendall Square and the current <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/new-house-to-undergo-wholesale-renovation-1107">renovation of New House</a>. The new Vassar Street residence hall will add 450 undergraduate beds and 12 Graduate Resident Tutor (GRT) apartments to MIT’s housing inventory. The building will also address a range of other student needs expressed through the collective design process.</p>
<p><strong>Purposeful community engagement</strong></p>
<p>During the project design phase, members of the MIT community — including the New Residences Working Group, comprised of students and staff from the Division of Student Life and Campus Construction — were active participants in the exploration of different design approaches and ideas. Central to this process was the identification of specific goals for the residence.</p>
<p>For the MIT participants, priorities included a design that would foster small, close-knit living communities and include a mix of first-year and upper-class students, a variety of community-building spaces, and a community kitchen available for use by students. For the architects, a key goal was a design that would be as unique and bold as other MIT campus architecture yet would fit its surrounding context and fully support the student communities living within.</p>
<p>“MIT is working to provide an on-campus housing experience that enhances students’ learning and personal development,” says Suzy M. Nelson, vice president and dean for student life. “The new Vassar Street residence design is the culmination of a process that began in the summer of 2016 to describe the ideal MIT undergraduate residential experience. That includes smaller clusters of students within the larger residence, ample flexible shared space, and food and dining facilities suitable for a wide range of student needs.” Throughout that process, notes Nelson, students have been deeply engaged and vocal about needs and expectations for the new residence. “Their input has been critical all the way along — from the architectural principles to the building design — because they have the best understanding of what works in the existing communities and how those features enhance the student experience.”</p>
<p>According to Michael Maltzan of Michael Maltzan Architecture (lead architects on the project), the Vassar Street project design process involved positive, lively debate and enabled the team to collectively seek balance by suggesting and testing various concepts.</p>
<p>“For example, we used the length of the site to real advantage,” he explains, “inside and out. The design will help create real and perceived social activity along the entire length.” Maltzan is also a lecturer in MIT's Department of Architecture.</p>
<p><strong>A design that guides and enables</strong></p>
<p>The building’s main entrance will be centered in its first floor and marked by a soaring blue wall on a grand scale. Surrounded by a mostly color-neutral environment of concrete and brick, this embellished wall is intended to draw the eye and invite social convergence.</p>
<p>Inside, the blue color will continue to thread its way through the building, highlighting the paths people will use as they move around. Student rooms will be arranged in clusters that mix single and double rooms with shared community spaces and a GRT apartment.&nbsp; The building’s design is based in part on the “critical paths” students will take to reach their rooms within these clusters. At the same time, the design also encourages engagement among different clusters by making it easy for one to connect with others via well-placed stairways and gathering points.</p>
<p>On the ground floor, the residence will offer a 225-seat residential dining facility that is open to members of the community and includes a kitchen where students may also cook for themselves. The ground floor will also house an inviting avenue of common spaces such as study lounges, a private courtyard, and a makerspace area.</p>
<p>The ground floor design incorporates a variety of elements intended to foster social engagement. At the entrance, a courtyard with trees and a shaded seating area will welcome residents and community members. Much of the interior ground floor space will be visible or partly visible from the outside through glass walls and ribbons of glazing. Even the private courtyard will yield a sense of connection to the street through greenery-twined screened walls.</p>
<p><strong>Sustainability: Aiming high</strong></p>
<p>As is the norm for MIT’s design and construction initiatives, the project team considered and prioritized sustainable solutions at every level. With LEED Gold certification as its target, the building’s design incorporates a range of efficiency strategies that are now standard at MIT, including high-performance heating and cooling systems, efficient lighting and appliances, and stormwater management. The design also responds to MIT’s sustainability goals by establishing more than 275 new bicycle parking spaces for residents of the new building.</p>
<p>But to go one step further, the Vassar Street project team is incorporating sustainable construction techniques inspired by the Passive House standard that focuses on the energy efficiency of buildings. For example, the team expects the majority of the building’s exterior to be constructed using a panelized exterior system, where the panels are prefabricated and inspected in a factory prior to installation. The impacts of this technique include reducing the energy needed to heat or cool the building, based on exterior panels that allow very little air infiltration and reduce thermal bridging.</p>
<p>This construction process may help the residence hall serve as a test case for MIT as it evaluates sustainable options for other campus construction projects going forward.</p>
<p>“With this project, MIT continues to invest in a vibrant residential life experience for undergraduate students,” notes Richard Amster, director of campus construction. “This building will present the opportunity to enhance campus life, not only as a new, more sustainable facility but&nbsp;as a building that will&nbsp;enable us to continue&nbsp;renewing&nbsp;our existing housing stock.”</p>
<p><strong>Serving its community</strong></p>
<p>As envisioned by its collaborative design team, the Vassar Street residence will serve MIT in many other ways as well.</p>
<p>It will serve as a reflection of the neighborhood’s character and history, from its industrial-inspired north-facing walls that incorporate the scale and textures of the railway corridor to its south-facing courtyards and green spaces that provide connective pathways to its interior. It will serve the Institute at large with a new community gathering space at its western end, new benches and lighting along Vassar Street, and a welcoming new dining facility. Most important, it will serve its residents by providing vital student spaces close to the center of campus — spaces designed to foster inclusiveness and build community.</p>
<p>“I hope the building is an integral part [of students’ lives],” explains Michael Maltzan. “Then I think the building will be doing what architecture does at its very best, which is to be a productive, supportive, provocative armature for life in its most real way.”</p>
<p><strong>Current construction activities</strong></p>
<p>Construction activities at the Vassar Street site to date have included site-enabling activities such as establishing the necessary utilities for the new residence. The next step — the demolition of the West Garage — is expected to begin this month and be completed by April. At that point, construction of the residence foundation will begin, including the installation of precast concrete piles. Construction of the residence itself is expected to begin this fall.</p>
<p>During the construction, safety fencing will enclose the site along its perimeter, and new pedestrian crosswalks will redirect foot traffic to the south side of Vassar Street along the length of the construction site. In addition, a new shared bike lane will be created along the westbound side of Vassar Street (to be shared by bicycles and vehicles). The eastbound pedestrian and cycling lanes on the athletic field side of Vassar will remain unchanged. Two-way traffic will be maintained along Vassar Street, with a traffic detail in place as needed to ensure safety and access.</p>
<p>The project team is planning a series of communications to keep the community in the loop throughout the construction process. In addition to notifications that are being emailed and posted online, the team is also conducting information sessions with site abutters at major milestones along the way.</p>
<p>For more information about the construction project, please contact Senior Project Manager <a href="mailto: tfanning@mit.edu?subject=Vassar%20St%20Residence%20query">TJ Fanning</a>. Online updates will also be available on the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/facilities/construction/updates.shtml#w46" target="_blank">construction updates page</a> on the Department of Facilities website. Members of the community can subscribe to email notifications regarding construction activities on the updates page as well.</p>
A new residence hall on Vassar Street will add 450 undergraduate beds to MIT’s inventory and will serve the Institute at large with a new community gathering space at its western end, new benches and lighting along Vassar Street, and a welcoming new dining facility.Image courtesy Michael Maltzan ArchitectureStudent life, Residential life, Campus buildings and architecture, Cambridge, Boston and region, Facilities, Community, ArchitectureStudents share their passions outside the classroomhttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-video-contest-students-share-passions-outside-classroom-0118
#ThisisMIT video contest gives students a chance to indulge their creativity and submit short videos showcasing the magic of MIT.Thu, 18 Jan 2018 14:00:00 -0500Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-video-contest-students-share-passions-outside-classroom-0118<p>It is well-known that MIT students are academically exceptional. What is less known is how well-rounded, creative, and artistic they are.</p>
<p>To showcase what students do outside of the classroom, MIT Communications Initiatives and the Division of Student Life created a campaign to&nbsp;encourage students&nbsp;to produce videos for social sharing. The goal was to give&nbsp;audiences around the world a greater sense of the magic and culture of MIT.</p>
<p>Following brainstorming sessions with a group of students and discussions of what might encourage students to participate, the #ThisisMIT video contest was created. The contest ran from the second week of September until Thanksgiving.</p>
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<p>Students submitted short videos focusing on what defines their MIT experience outside of the lab and classroom, with topics ranging from athletics to art. Their lens provides&nbsp;a glimpse into what makes MIT such a special place to so many. The top three&nbsp;video winners received $100 in TechCASH, while&nbsp;two runners-up&nbsp;received $50 in TechCASH.</p>
<p>The winning videos were:</p>
<p><strong>$100 TechCASH Winners</strong></p>
<p>“#ThisIsMIT”&nbsp;by sophomore Daniel “Gonzo” Gonzalez Cunningham</p>
<p>“Dance at MIT” by junior Claire Nobuhara</p>
<p>“Are you Artistic?” by sophomore Max Kessler</p>
<p><strong>$50 TechCASH Winners</strong></p>
<p>“Making a Batman Bass Guitar,” by graduate student Jin Wu</p>
<p>“MIT Women's Rugby,” by senior Alexa Jaeger</p>
The #ThisisMIT contest asked students to submit short videos focusing on what defines their MIT experience outside of the lab and classroom.Image: Wing NganContests and academic competitions, Student life, Students, Video, Athletics, Sports and fitness, Arts, Clubs and activities, graduate, Graduate, postdoctoral, Undergraduate, CommunityMindHandHeart announces record number of Innovation Fund winnershttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mindhandheart-announces-record-number-innovation-fund-winners-0108
From indoor lawns to meditative drawing classes, the selected projects aim to make MIT a more healthy and welcoming place.Mon, 08 Jan 2018 14:00:01 -0500Maisie O’Brien | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2018/mindhandheart-announces-record-number-innovation-fund-winners-0108<p>The <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund" target="_blank">MindHandHeart Innovation Fund</a> has awarded $50,848 to a record 17 projects developed by students, faculty, and staff to make the MIT community more healthy, welcoming, and inclusive. Sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, the fund was promoted at a series of <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-mindhandheart-initiative-funds-creative-study-breaks-1114" target="_blank">study breaks</a> earlier this year and received nearly double the usual number of applications in the fall 2017 cycle.</p>
<p>Awarded projects address an array of topics, including life skills, wellness, community building, enhancing academic climates, and increasing help-seeking, diversity, and inclusion. Of all 17 awarded projects, 59 percent are spearheaded by students, 12 percent are driven by faculty, and 29 percent are driven by staff members.</p>
<p>Applications were reviewed by members of the MindHandHeart coalition and a review committee composed of <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund/grant-recipients" target="_blank">past Innovation Fund winners</a> and representatives from the Graduate Student Council, the Undergraduate Association, and MindHandHeart’s leadership team.</p>
<p>“I was truly moved by the creativity, problem-solving skills, and sheer number of applications,” says Maryanne Kirkbride, MindHandHeart executive administrator. “It is a testament to the strength of the MIT community and our commitment to supporting one another. The chancellor, MIT Medical, and I are excited to see these projects progress over the spring semester.”</p>
<p>A number of the newly funded Innovation Fund projects aim to build community and foster connectedness on campus. Spearheaded by the <a href="http://ome.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Office of Minority Education</a>, The Standard is a cohort-based men of color initiative targeting first-year undergraduates. Participants will engage in workshops, guest lectures, and a range of activities designed to enhance their academic, personal, and professional success. Director of the Office of Minority Education (OME) DiOnetta Jones Crayton says of the grant, “Supporting undergraduate men of color is a priority for the OME, and we are thrilled to receive funding for The Standard from MindHandHeart to expand our efforts and reach more students in new and exciting ways.”</p>
<p>Organized by <a href="http://web.mit.edu/mujeres/www/" target="_blank">Mujeres Latinas</a>, the Hermanas Unidas inaugural event will bring together Latinas from across MIT to create a supportive, enduring, and inspiring community. WiSTEM Week consists of a week of events celebrating and promoting women in STEM at MIT.</p>
<p>Several projects focus on building community in MIT’s academic environments. Steven G. Johnson, professor of applied mathematics, was awarded a grant to bring a Math Puzzles Pilot Event to MIT’s Department of Mathematics to create opportunities for socialization among students and faculty. Graduate student Deborah Ehrlich’s project, Continuing Conversations for Chemists, will encourage members of the Department of Chemistry to meet over lunch.&nbsp;And, graduate student Gabriela Serrato Marks’ Science Storytelling project will teach storytelling and science communication techniques to students in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.</p>
<p>Three projects will use art as a vehicle to promote well-being and community. Artful Meditation/Draw What You See is a weekly drawing course incorporating meditation techniques led by MIT lecturer Mauricio Cordero. Organized by <a href="http://lbgt.mit.edu/" target="_blank">LBGTQ@MIT</a>, Making a SPXCE to Call Home is a collaborative mural painting initiative that plans to combine canvas and digital effects in the new SPXCE Intercultural Center. Spearheaded by MIT alumna and staff member Natalia Guerrero, Studio consists of drop-in art sessions for members of the MIT community to draw, reflect, and connect with others.</p>
<p>Two projects bring nature to the MIT community in innovative ways. Spearheaded by first-year Sloan student Yifan Lu, <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/grass-is-greener-indoor-lawn-mit-student-center-1201" target="_blank">Indoor Lawn</a> brought a grass installation to the Student Center to calm and entertain passersby.&nbsp;And, the MacGregor House Garden aims to set up a hydroponic gardening system that will provide vegetables for residents of MacGregor House.</p>
<p>Other projects include Evaluation on the State of the Black Community at MIT, a survey and report organized by The Black Student Union assessing the state of the black community at MIT; Adulting 101, a series of financial literacy workshops for MIT students; America in Transition, a documentary series and social impact campaign that explores relationships, family, and social change from the perspective of transgender people of color across the U.S.; Postdoc REFS, a two-year pilot program aiming to train postdocs in conflict management and create an official group for postdocs to utilize their conflict management skills; <a href="https://www.daybreaker.com/" target="_blank">MIT Daybreaker</a>; and Crafternoon Sewing Circle.</p>
<p>To date, MindHandHeart has supported 57 Innovation Fund projects, 11 of which are now self-sustaining. Past Innovation Fund winners include the <a href="http://puppylab.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Puppy Lab</a>, <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/featured-video-random-acts-of-kindness-0307" target="_blank">Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week</a>, <a href="http://wgs.mit.edu/my-sisters-keeper/" target="_blank">My Sister’s Keeper</a>, and <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/algorithm-connects-students-to-interesting-people-on-campus-1017" target="_blank">MIT Connect</a>. The <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund/" target="_blank">MindHandHeart Innovation Fund</a> will be accepting applications from March 1-30, 2018.</p>
Fall 2017 MindHandHeart Innovation Fund winnersPhoto: Maisie O'BrienMindHandHeart, Community, Mental health, Student life, Chancellor, MIT Medical, Grants, Students, Faculty, Staff, Campus servicesTea with teachershttp://news.mit.edu/2017/tea-with-teachers-students-interview-professors-1222
A new initiative on campus is bringing professors and students together over tea.Fri, 22 Dec 2017 11:45:01 -0500Kollin Wasserlein | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/tea-with-teachers-students-interview-professors-1222<p>Everyone knows that the Student Center is a community space students use to eat and study. What happens on the fourth floor may come as a surprise to many in the MIT community: A semiprofessional film studio is home to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIJXccw9VkEXq7bNNoKlqvA">Tea With Teachers</a>, a project founded to make MIT professors more approachable to students.</p>
<p>Sina Booeshagi '17 co-founded Tea With Teachers to address a discomfort he felt when approaching professors. “I felt that myself and other students faced confidence or language barriers that made it difficult to approach professors and get to know them,” says Booeshagi. A casual conversation over tea, he thought, would help others to see just how approachable these professors are.</p>
<p>The Tea with Teachers team applied to the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund">MindHandHeart Innovation Fund</a>, a grant program sponsored by <a href="https://medical.mit.edu/">MIT Medical</a> and the <a href="https://chancellor.mit.edu/">Office of the Chancellor</a> for advancing mental health, well-being, and community at MIT, in order to start a YouTube series profiling MIT professors. MindHandHeart enthusiastically supported Tea with Teachers’ innovative model of fostering connectedness on campus.</p>
<p>Along with co-founders senior Tchelet Segev, junior Nicholas Curtis, and sophomore Melissa Cao, Booeshagi was able to move forward with the series and served as its first host. He was well-suited to the role. “I enjoy getting to know people, talking about current events, and simply relaxing over a cup of tea,” he says. “It therefore felt pretty natural to do the same with MIT professors.”</p>
<p>Professors who appear on "Tea with Teachers" field a number of questions designed to provide a glimpse into their lives outside of the classroom, such as what their guilty pleasures are, what pranks they've pulled, and what superstitions they believe in. At the end of each episode, professors are asked if they have any wisdom to impart to MIT students.</p>
<p>To date, the channel has amassed over 16,000 views in the course of seven months, featuring the likes of MIT Chancellor <a href="https://chancellor.mit.edu/about">Cynthia Barnhart</a>, Walter M. May and A. Hazel May Professor <a href="http://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/slocum@mit.edu">Alexander Slocum</a>, Vice Chancellor <a href="http://orgchart.mit.edu/vice-chancellor">Ian Waitz</a>, and Institute Professor <a href="http://web.mit.edu/langerlab/langer.html">Robert Langer</a>. Its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqJZzvzW3ik">second season</a>, featuring new host sophomore Talia Khan, debuted on Nov. 21 with an interview with associate professor of physics <a href="http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/jarillo-herrero_pablo.html">Pablo Jarillo-Herrero</a>.</p>
<p>"Tea with Teachers has been an amazing experience," Kahn says. "I have really appreciated the opportunity to engage in so many meaningful conversations, and I am thankful to be a part of an initiative that helps bridge the gap between students and professors. I am excited to see how Tea with Teachers will grow and evolve in the future.”</p>
<p>The professors seem to love the idea as well. After being interviewed in early November, professor of biology <a href="https://biology.mit.edu/people/eric_lander">Eric Lander</a> reflected: “I loved the chance to sit down and have tea with Tea with Teachers. What a great program to help students connect with teachers!”</p>
<p>After the successful launch of Tea With Teachers, the group doesn’t plan on letting up. One can hardly walk down a hallway at MIT without seeing a poster advertising the project, or open their mailbox without receiving an email touting the most recent episode. Their first season is available on the Tea With Teachers <a href="http://youtube.com/teawithteachers">YouTube channel</a>, and new videos are released every Tuesday at 10 p.m.</p>
Spring 2016 Tea with Teachers Host Sina Booeshagi '17 interviews professor of mechanical engineering John Lienhard.Photo courtesy of Tea With TeachersMindHandHeart, Community, Arts, Students, Student life, Undergraduate, Faculty, Chancellor, MIT MedicalCampus lights bring holiday cheerhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/campus-lights-tech-twinkles-bring-holiday-cheer-1219
Tech Twinkles, a celebration of holiday lights on MIT’s campus, drew hundreds of students and community members to the Stratton Student Center.Tue, 19 Dec 2017 17:10:01 -0500Nicole Cooper | Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/campus-lights-tech-twinkles-bring-holiday-cheer-1219<p>Tech Twinkles, a celebration of holiday lights on MIT’s campus, drew hundreds of students and community members to the Stratton Student Center on December 6. In its fourth year, the event featured hot apple cider, cupcakes, and performances by the Logarhythms, the Chorallaries, and comedy improv troupe Roadkill Buffet.</p>
<p>Tech Twinkles was started in 2014 by Veronika Jedryka&nbsp;’17, Teresa de Figueiredo ’17, and Jane He ’15. The idea came about when they realized how early it gets dark outside during the winter. “We thought it would be great to add some kind of brightness to MIT’s campus and lift people’s spirits,” Jedryka explains, “especially during a tough time with finals and final projects.”</p>
<p>In its first three years, the event was a partnership between the founders and the Division of Student Life. After Jedryka and Figueiredo graduated, the Undergraduate Association’s (UA) Events Committee volunteered to continue the tradition. This year, the UA added some furry fun to the proceedings with therapy dogs from MIT’s Puppy Lab, sponsored in part by the MindHandHeart Initiative.</p>
<p>Sophomore Christine You, UA Events Committee co-chair, explains, “For me, it’s a little sad when I’m done with my classes around 4 p.m. but the sun has already set and it’s very dark.”</p>
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<p>This also marks the first year that MIT Facilities and Grounds took on the challenge of stringing thousands of lights on trees across campus. Sogna Scott, administrative assistant in Grounds Services, explains that it was a positive experience for the team “because it takes us out of the realm of doing our everyday work and it kind of gives us something to be a little more proud of.”</p>
<p>Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart, who has attended the event each year, was pleased with this year’s outcome. “What is truly amazing to me — and I get to witness it every day, it seems — is the students here at MIT and how much energy they have,” she says. “The organization is phenomenal and the commitment and excitement that students bring to it is just amazing.”</p>
<p>Tech Twinkles has become a welcome addition to December, encouraging students to take a break from preparing for finals and enjoy a few stress-free hours together. “It’s beginning to feel like winter and that means, for many of us, darkness,” Barnhart explains. “When you walk by those lights&nbsp;…&nbsp;they just make you happy.”</p>
Trees light up MIT campus as part of the fourth annual Tech Twinkles lighting celebration. Photo: Division of Student LifeStudents, Student life, Community, Special events and guest speakers, MindHandHeartTackling student food insecurity with SwipeSharehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-swipeshare-program-tackling-student-food-insecurity-1215
Partnership between the Division of Student Life, undergrads, and grad students that enables guest swipe donations draws 673 donated meals in its first week.Fri, 15 Dec 2017 18:15:00 -0500Kimberly Haberlin | Office of the Chancellorhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-swipeshare-program-tackling-student-food-insecurity-1215<p>In its first full week of operation, SwipeShare —&nbsp;a new program that allows students who are on a meal plan to donate their guest swipes to other students struggling with food insecurity —&nbsp;garnered 673 donated meals. The program was launched on Dec. 4 as a partnership between the Division of Student Life (DSL), Undergraduate Association (UA), and Graduate Student Council (GSC), and is one part of an ongoing, multi-pronged approach to&nbsp;tackling challenges students can face getting enough to eat.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t matter who you are. Any student can face food insecurity, so any student who expresses they’re facing this difficulty can get the meal swipes,” says&nbsp;Alexa Martin, the UA's vice president.</p>
<p>GSC President Sarah Goodman says financial insecurity in general “is a significant problem for many graduate students, particularly those with families.”</p>
<p>“Among other programs that provide assistance to grad students in need, we hope that SwipeShare will provide another avenue for students to get support in a way that works best for them," Goodman says.</p>
<p>Accessing the program — either by donating guest swipes or requesting a meal —&nbsp;is designed to be simple. Students who wish to donate their swipes can go to <a href="http://studentlife.mit.edu/swipeshare" target="_blank">studentlife.mit.edu/swipeshare</a> (certificate required) to see how many guest swipes they have for the semester and then select how many they would like to donate. Undergraduates who wish to receive the swipes can contact a dean in <a href="https://studentlife.mit.edu/s3" target="_blank">Student Support Services</a>, and graduate students who need meals can reach out to <a href="mailto:naomic@mit.edu">Naomi Carton</a>, the associate dean for Residential Life and Dining.</p>
<p>There is no application or qualification process, and all requests will be handled discreetly.</p>
<p>“We want the bar to be low so there’s no paperwork, and it doesn’t matter if students are receiving financial aid or not,” says DSL Senior Associate Dean David Randall.&nbsp;“Students only need to come in and tell us what their need is so that we can figure out a way to help.”</p>
<p>Vice President and Dean for Student Life Suzy Nelson calls SwipeShare a “creative and caring program” and “a solid first step in the right direction” to address food insecurity among students. DSL, in collaboration with students, staff, and faculty, is also focused on developing and implementing other strategies.</p>
<p>For instance, DSL has issued a request for proposal for a new dining contract that aims to create a “food secure” campus and promote the availability of economically-priced, healthful food across campus. The DSL will also implement a new residential meal plan program that permits roll-over meals, a change that would allow the SwipeShare program to expand beyond collecting just guest swipe donations. Under the current meal plan, regular meal swipes expire at the end of each week, while guest swipes accumulate throughout the semester, allowing students to donate unused meals.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Food Insecurity Solutions Committee, chaired by Randall, has been meeting throughout the fall semester. The group, which consists of students and staff, is responsible for reviewing survey data, consulting with members of the MIT community, examining how peer institutions address food insecurity, and exploring the feasibility of implementing similar models at the Institute. The committee’s report is due to be released at the start of the spring semester. Also, an emergency grant fund was recently established to help students who are struggling to afford necessities — such as food and winter clothing — or to cover unforeseen, essential expenses. Undergraduates are encouraged to contatct Student Support Services for more information, while&nbsp;graduate students can reach out to Naomi Carton.</p>
<p>Finally, a&nbsp;new coalition called Accessing Resources MIT (ARM) is also&nbsp;in its early stages. The coalition responds to work done by the student organization, <a href="https://www.studentsonthecase.com/" target="_blank">Class Awareness Support and Equality (CASE)</a>, and is in the process of completing an inventory of how MIT supports students in high economic need; assessing how those resources and services are advertised to students; and identifying any gaps and potential solutions for raising awareness about the resources that can help, especially among incoming students and their families.</p>
<p>Any students who have feedback or questions about existing or potential food insecurity programs can email <a href="mailto:foodinsecurity-feedback@mit.edu">foodinsecurity-feedback@mit.edu</a>.</p>
The SwipeShare initiative at MIT is designed to help tackle student food insecurity.Image courtesy of the Division of Student Life.Campus services, Community, Food, Giving, Residential life, Student life, Volunteering, outreach, public service, StudentsWellness Fair showcases healthy campus resourceshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-annual-wellness-fair-draws-students-to-learn-about-campus-resources-1206
More than 400 students participated in the event, which connected them to more than two dozen wellness-related campus organizations.Wed, 06 Dec 2017 17:40:00 -0500Nicole Cooper | Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-annual-wellness-fair-draws-students-to-learn-about-campus-resources-1206<p>MIT’s MindHandHeart coalition and the Division of Student Life recently hosted its annual Wellness Fair in the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center, featuring more than two dozen&nbsp;wellness-related campus resources for students to learn more about.</p>
<p>To encourage students to learn about all the resources that MIT has to offer, each participant received a student passbook. The objective was to collect a sticker from each office listed to claim a Wellness Warrior T-shirt. By the end of the night, more than&nbsp;400 student passbooks were turned in.</p>
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<p>Each year, the Wellness Fair seeks&nbsp;to shine light on the number of resources available to students on campus. Whether they are experiencing academic stress, health issues, or other personal struggles, students can find support from groups like LBGTQ+ Services, Student Disability Services, and Student Support Services.&nbsp;Group representatives interacted with students, answered their questions, and handed out giveaways like candy and T-shirts.</p>
<p>The fair even included a photo booth with goofy accessories for students to wear in their pictures. Free smoothies, raffles, massages, and Camelback water bottles added to the excitement.</p>
<p>“I think it’s important to know that there’s support for you because it’s very easy to get narrow-minded when you’re doing all this work, especially when you get off track and you kind of forget that there’s things out there to help you,” one student attendee said.</p>
<p>Many who attended the event left feeling enlightened and supported. One student named&nbsp;Erica&nbsp;pointed out that it’s vital for students to know that they have a support system within the Institute.</p>
<p>“I think that MIT can be pretty stressful sometimes,” she said.&nbsp;“So it’s important to know that you have a really strong support network and that there are so many different groups and resources on campus for you.”</p>
Students attending the 2017 Wellness Fair show off their swag from different campus organizations.Photo courtesy of the Division of Student Life.Undergraduate, Students, Student life, MindHandHeart, Community, Campus services, Mental healthThree MIT seniors awarded 2018 Marshall Scholarshipshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/three-mit-seniors-awarded-marshall-scholarships-1204
Nick Schwartz, Olivia Zhao, and Liang Zhou will pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom.Mon, 04 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0500Julia Mongo | MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/three-mit-seniors-awarded-marshall-scholarships-1204<p>Three MIT students — Nick Schwartz, Olivia Zhao, and Liang Zhou — have been named winners of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. Funded by the British government, the Marshall Scholarship program supports one or two years of graduate study in any field at a U.K. institution. This year, Marshall Scholarships were awarded to 43 top American students</p>
<p>This year’s awards continue MIT’s strong showing; last year, MIT had four Marshall Scholar winners, the largest number of any university. Scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit, leadership, and ambassadorial potential to strengthen U.S.-U.K. understanding. Established in 1953, the Marshall Scholarship is named in honor of General George C. Marshall and celebrates the legacy of the Marshall Plan.</p>
<p>The student scholars were supported by MIT’s Office of Distinguished Fellowships and the Presidential Committee on Distinguished Fellowships. “Nick, Olivia, and Liang have put in heroic efforts this semester and throughout their time at MIT,” says Professor Rebecca Saxe, who co-chairs the committee along with Professor Will Broadhead. “We are all so proud of their accomplishments. It’s one of the best parts of our jobs, getting to play a small part in helping these students realize their visions.”&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Nick Schwartz</strong></p>
<p>Nick Schwartz, from Germantown, Tennessee, is an MIT senior majoring in mechanical engineering. Schwartz aims to combine his passion for complex engineering and humanitarian goals to become a leader in nuclear fusion technology, which he considers a transformative and cleaner renewable method for addressing the world’s energy crisis. As a Marshall Scholar, Schwartz plans to pursue a master’s degree in physics with extended research at Imperial College London.</p>
<p>At MIT, Schwartz has sought to engage in work that can improve people’s lives through engineering. At MIT’s D-Lab, he collaborated on the design of a pediatric transtibial prosthetic liner for use in developing countries, and traveled to Kenya and Ethiopia to field-test the product. He has also worked with the Practical Education Network in Ghana, enhancing STEM curricula with video tutorials.&nbsp;Schwartz has interned at Intuitive Surgical, where he worked on improving a surgical robot vision system, and at the CEiiA Center for Innovation and Creative Engineering, where he helped enhance drone technology. This past summer, he was a mechanical design intern at Tri Alpha Energy, a company that seeks to build a nuclear fusion reactor machine. Schwartz helped manufacture the pod levitation system for the MIT Hyperloop team, which finished among the final three teams in the 2017 international competition sponsored by Space X.</p>
<p>Schwartz is also dedicated to child advocacy. For the past two years, he has been an active executive member of Camp Kesem MIT and as coordinator of development has raised over $320,000 to fund the camp experience for children whose parents have been affected by cancer. Schwartz has also served as a program mentor for the MIT-student-led Leadership Training Institute, where he mentored local underserved high school students and advised them on service projects during a 12-week spring semester program. He is currently a mentor at MakerWorks, a student-run machine shop, where he guides other students in designing and building their projects.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Olivia Zhao</strong></p>
<p>Olivia Zhao, from Overland Park, Kansas, is an MIT senior majoring in economics with minors in public policy and mathematics. As a Marshall Scholar, Zhao will pursue a Master of Philosophy in economics at Oxford before returning to the U.S. to earn her doctorate.</p>
<p>As a freshman, Zhao conducted independent research on the influence of public opinion, partisan control, and election results on state- and municipal-level policy with Associate Professor Christopher Warshaw in the Department of Political Science. She went on to do research with Jonathan Gruber, the Ford Professor of Economics, on a variety of topics, including health care in India, tobacco use in New York state, workers’ compensation laws, and long-term care for the elderly. Zhao was named a Burchard Scholar for excellence in her social science studies, and she serves as an officer of the Undergraduate Economics Association, where she promotes learning about economics and the social sciences.</p>
<p>Zhao has analyzed polling data as a summer intern with the Washington political consulting firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. A lifelong Kansas City Royals fan, Zhao had the opportunity to combine her love for baseball and economics this past summer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, where, as an economic research intern, she conducted modeling on the financial incentives for minor league baseball players to use performance-enhancing drugs.</p>
<p>Outside of her economics work, Zhao has been an active volunteer for numerous causes. She currently serves as the president for the MIT Academic Teaching Initiative, a program that provides affordable SAT tutoring for low-income Boston area high school students. Through the Priscilla King Gray (PKG) Public Service Center at MIT, she volunteered as a teaching assistant for Teach for America in Milwaukee. Selected by the PKG Center as a team leader for the MIT Alternative Spring Break program, Zhao developed training sessions for volunteers at Cambridge’s Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House to discuss issues related to privilege, food insecurity, and racial inequality. She continues to collaborate with the PKG Center on developing other campus-community partnerships.</p>
<p><strong>Liang Zhou</strong></p>
<p>Liang Zhou, from Riverside, California, is an MIT senior pursuing a double major in brain and cognitive sciences and electrical engineering and computer science. Zhou hopes to contribute to a better understanding of human thought and decision-making by applying computational techniques to cognitive neuroscience research. Seeking to gain deeper insight into the social and philosophical contexts of neural thought, he will pursue a master’s in computational neuroscience at University College London. He hopes that his research will eventually help drive public policy grounded on more complete and accurate models of human behavior.</p>
<p>Zhou arrived at MIT with a multifaceted science background, having presented at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and placing in the top 20 nationwide in the USA Physics Olympiad. At MIT, he is an active member of Professor Josh Tenenbaum’s Computational Cognitive Science lab, conducting research on the mechanisms by which people make intuitive counterfactual judgments of structural stability and physical dynamics. He has also worked with Professor Haim Sompolinsky at Harvard University on a biologically faithful model of Hebbian neural networks. In the past, Zhou interned at Apple on the Siri Speech Engineering team, and his project Harmony (a collaborative music score editor for composers) won the 6.148 MIT Web Programming Competition his freshman year.</p>
<p>As a junior, Zhou served as a chair for EECScon, a conference which provides a venue for advanced undergraduates at MIT to present their novel research. He is also a teaching assistant for MIT’s graduate and undergraduate machine learning courses, which are among the largest classes on campus. Outside the classroom, he promotes health and wellness in his community as a MedLink liaison and was a board member and counselor for dynaMIT, a summer program which introduces STEM fields to low-income middle school students in the Boston area. In his free time, Zhou enjoys running and dancing.</p>
Marshall Scholars from left to right: Olivia Zhao, Nick Schwartz, Liang Zhou
Images: Ian MacLellanStudents, Undergraduate, Awards, honors and fellowships, Education, teaching, academics, Student life, Volunteering, outreach, public service, Mechanical engineering, Economics, Brain and cognitive sciences, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (eecs), School of Engineering, SHASS, School of ScienceWhere the grass is greenerhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/grass-is-greener-indoor-lawn-mit-student-center-1201
Surprise indoor lawn appears in the Student Center to calm and entertain.Fri, 01 Dec 2017 17:15:01 -0500Maisie O’Brien | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/grass-is-greener-indoor-lawn-mit-student-center-1201<p>As temperatures drop, the last leaves fall from the trees, and final exams loom, MIT students were surprised to find a nature-themed installation on the first floor of the Student Center on Monday. A temporary lawn was placed under the couches with support from <a href="https://studentlife.mit.edu/cac" target="_blank">Campus Activities Complex</a> and <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MindHandHeart</a> to create a sense of calm.</p>
<p>The indoor lawn was spearheaded by Yifan Lu, a first-year MIT Sloan School of Management student who was inspired by a similar installation at her alma mater Cornell University. “Seeing the grass at Cornell really struck me,” said Lu. “It was such a random and fun idea. When I got to MIT, it felt similar to Cornell in that you have a lot of stressed students and it gets really cold, so I thought it would be great to bring it to MIT.”</p>
<p>On the second day of the installation, MindHandHeart sponsored a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/MindHandHeart/photos/?tab=album&amp;album_id=516412885395296" target="_blank">study break</a> with free cupcakes and hot chocolate that was attended by over 200 people. In addition to the desserts, MindHandHeart distributed pamphlets describing support resources on campus and ways to help peers in distress.</p>
<p>Lu described the study break saying: “I’m thrilled that people came and enjoyed the lawn. They didn’t just grab a cupcake and leave. People were reflecting on why this is happening and sitting down to relax. Having spent a few hours on the lawn over the past couple days, I’ve watched the surprise on students’ faces and their smiles have made me feel really good.”</p>
<p>Lu is using a suggestion box to collect anonymous feedback on the installation. One student wrote: “I'm from Colorado, and one of the first things I've noticed since being here is the lack of open grass and parks. Being at this indoor lawn brought back an element of home I didn't realize I needed.” Another student commented: “I cannot put into words how much I loved the indoor lawn and the happiness that it brought me. I love nature, and the sad and gloomy weather, trees, and early sunsets have a huge impact on my mood. Please make this a frequent thing!”</p>
<p>Speaking on the impact of the lawn, Lu said: “There are numerous studies that demonstrate how elements of nature, even if they’re indoors and very subtle, can increase attention capacity, lower stress and anxiety levels, and encourage a positive mood. It’s okay if students don’t consciously recognize that — it just makes me happy to see them enjoying the grass and relaxing a little bit.”</p>
Yifan Lu, a first-year MIT Sloan student, founded the indoor lawn installation at the MIT Student Center.Photo: Maisie O'BrienCommunity, Student life, Arts, Mental health, MindHandHeartLetter regarding MIT&#039;s efforts in combating sexual harassmenthttp://news.mit.edu/2017/letter-regarding-mits-progress-efforts-combat-sexual-assault-1130
Thu, 30 Nov 2017 11:30:00 -0500MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/letter-regarding-mits-progress-efforts-combat-sexual-assault-1130<p><em>The following email was sent yesterday to the MIT community by President L. Rafael Reif.</em></p>
<p>To the members of the MIT community,</p>
<p>In the last several weeks, the nation has once again seen evidence that sexual harassment is pervasive. I am deeply disturbed by the revelations of misconduct elsewhere — and I know it also happens at MIT.</p>
<p>On this question, our community is not an oasis of safety. When it comes to sexual harassment, assault and related misconduct, a community like ours presents a particular set of risks: a 24/7 environment that brings together people across a broad range of ages, incomes and backgrounds, many of whom have power over others — power to make being at MIT miserable, power enough to make or break a career.</p>
<p>I want to use this moment of heightened attention to be clear about why this abuse of power is so disturbing in the context of our community — and to highlight what we must do and are doing about it. I expect we do not yet know the full extent of the problem at MIT. But the fact it exists here at all demands our serious attention.</p>
<p>The MIT community is built on collaboration and mutual respect. Sexual harassment is an act of aggression that belittles, unnerves and controls. It violates our fundamental expectations of respect and equality, and it violates the humanity of the person being harassed.</p>
<p>For many who suffer sexual harassment, the experience seriously damages their lives, their aspirations, their confidence and their careers. In some cases, the “remedy” can be damaging too. It grieves me to know that some of you reading this may have endured sexual misconduct at MIT, sought to take action and felt thwarted, silenced or ignored. As a community and as an administration, we must make sure that seeking help actually helps.</p>
<p>So, what are we doing?</p>
<ul>
<li>We start with a baseline of sound policies against harassment, thoughtfully revised just last year. We are now making certain that our procedures for raising complaints and reviewing them are fair to all involved, effective and clear.</li>
<li>We are also expanding rules regarding consensual relations among community members across lines of authority, such as faculty and graduate students.</li>
<li>Another vital step is to offer those who experience sexual misconduct the right resources, such as confidential personal support and guidance about options for reporting. In the last three years, MIT has substantially improved these services and expanded our staff. But many who could use such services may not even know they exist; we need to do more to get the word out. Chancellor Barnhart offers more detail on our efforts in this interview.</li>
<li>All incoming students go through online training to understand what constitutes sexual misconduct, how to intervene against it and how to respond effectively to someone affected by it. Thanks to a two-year development process, now, for the first time, we are including all faculty and staff. This process has already begun with the deans, department heads, and directors of labs and centers. By the end of the academic year, we expect that every member of the community will take part in this training.</li>
<li>Finally, to make good decisions, we need good data. The training mechanisms for faculty and staff will also provide ways to indicate whether one has experienced sexual misconduct at MIT. And in the next academic year, we will again conduct a survey that will allow students to convey how they may have experienced sexual misconduct here.</li>
<li>I am conscious, however, that especially on questions around faculty and staff misconduct, we are not where we need to be. I have asked the leaders of Human Resources, the Provost’s Office, the Chancellor's Office, and the Office of the General Counsel — consulting with community members — to study our policies and practices, strengthen them where necessary, increase the community's awareness of them and develop a process so that findings of sexual misconduct are consistently handled in a way that balances fairness and transparency.</li>
</ul>
<p>In the end, the most important work is up to all of us. We need to actively build a culture that treats sexual harassment, coercion and assault as taboo, absurdly out of bounds — unthinkable for anyone, of any age, in any context. Let me now state the obvious. Most harassers are men. As a result, the men in our community must play a particularly important role in leading and driving the necessary change in culture.</p>
<p>Every member of our community is valuable, and harm to one is harm to all. As long as sexual harassment and assault persist in our community, we fail to live up to our shared potential and to fulfill our aspiration to make a better world.</p>
<p>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; *&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; *</p>
<p>If the problem seems daunting, we can take inspiration from two MIT giants we lost this year, President Emeritus Paul Gray and Institute Professor Millie Dresselhaus.</p>
<p>In the 1970s and ’80s, Paul and Millie both saw that the MIT they lived and worked in should be better — more fair, more open and more welcoming to talent from every background — and they took deliberate, concerted, strategic action. Their leadership helped to reshape the MIT community — and helped deliver “the future” we inhabit today.</p>
<p>Their progress proves something important and hopeful: that in the life of a community, cultural change and moral growth are possible. Today, the responsibility to sustain that momentum falls to us. So I close with a challenge: that we each strive to define what we can do to invent a better MIT community for those who are here today, and for those who will follow us tomorrow.</p>
<p>I look forward to joining you in this vital work.</p>
<p>Sincerely,<br />
L. Rafael Reif</p>
Students, Letters to the Community, Administration, President L. Rafael Reif, Campus services, Community, MIT Medical, Health, Student life, Faculty, Staff3Q: Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart on efforts to combat sexual assaulthttp://news.mit.edu/2017/letter-cynthia-barnhart-updates-community-combat-sexual-assault-1129
Barnhart reports on progress since pioneering student survey, urges all members of MIT community to be part of culture change to prevent sexual misconduct.Wed, 29 Nov 2017 16:38:29 -0500MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/letter-cynthia-barnhart-updates-community-combat-sexual-assault-1129<p><em>In the fall of 2014, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart released the results of the </em><a href="https://chancellor.mit.edu/2014-community-attitudes-on-sexual-assault"><em>Community Attitudes on Sexual Assault (CASA) survey</em></a><em>, an online survey that was sent to all MIT undergraduates and graduate students to better understand the extent and effects of sexual misconduct at MIT. With information and insights from CASA in hand, the administration has been partnering with students, faculty, and staff to raise awareness about what constitutes misconduct and how to prevent it, and making significant investments in resources. Against the recent backdrop of sexual harassment and assault cases in workplaces and at institutions across the country, Barnhart spoke to </em>MIT News<em> about the Institute's work to address this complex problem.</em></p>
<p><strong>Q: </strong>In the three years since the CASA survey results were released, how has MIT responded to what we learned from students about sexual misconduct on campus?</p>
<p><strong>A: </strong>The CASA survey has given us a baseline understanding of sexual assault at MIT — it shed a light on painful problems in our community, and it pointed us in the direction of solutions.</p>
<p>The key takeaways were that we needed to do more to educate people about support resources and reporting options, we needed to make it easier for them to get help, and we needed to change attitudes and behaviors. Over the last three years, thanks to investments in new staff, education and community outreach initiatives, and updates to our policies and procedures, we’ve been able to make some meaningful progress.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://titleix.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Title IX</a> and <a href="https://studentlife.mit.edu/vpr" target="_blank">Violence Prevention and Response</a> (VPR) offices have added education, prevention, community outreach, and investigatory specialists to their teams, enabling us to educate more people about how to prevent sexual misconduct from happening, and to effectively respond when incidents occur. Through these efforts, we have sparked the kind of dialogue and awareness that leads to prevention and changes in culture that get at the root of this problem. Here are just a few examples:</p>
<p>•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Since 2015, nearly 3,000 fraternity members and undergraduates have taken part in Party-Safe Plus training, which teaches students how to host parties responsibly and includes lessons on bystander intervention.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;In 2016 and 2017, a total of more than 1,200 sorority members completed Sorority Trainings Addressing Risk (STAR), which focuses in part on sexual assault awareness and sexual assault intervention.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;All new undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and postdoctoral scholars are required to complete an online sexual misconduct training program so they are aware of campus resources, policies, and reporting options.</p>
<p>According to the CASA survey, 63 percent of respondents who reported experiencing unwanted sexual behavior told someone about it; 90 percent of those students sought support from a friend. To respond to this finding, we’ve made a concerted effort to strengthen our peer-to-peer education and support network. I’m particularly proud about the positive impact of two student-led initiatives:</p>
<p>•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;In just over two years, 70 Pleasure@MIT student educators have conducted workshops about components of healthy, respectful relationships in more than 21 residence halls and fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups. They’ve reached more than 1,000 of their peers who continue to spread what they learn.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Together with the Title IX Office, our graduate student leaders in Graduate Women at MIT (GWAMIT) are hosting dinners every semester with representatives from many different departments to discuss gender issues and to share best practices about promoting an inclusive, welcoming academic climate.</p>
<p>We’ve also made updates to MIT’s policies and procedures. We have expanded and clarified sexual misconduct policies, including those that address sexual assault and sexual harassment, intimate partner violence, and stalking. Responding to the recommendations of an Institute task force, we implemented more robust procedures to investigate and adjudicate student complaints of sexual misconduct. And the Title IX office now offers a <a href="https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?MassInstofTech&amp;layout_id=5" target="_blank">new online reporting form</a>, accepts anonymous reports of misconduct, and publishes <a href="http://titleix.mit.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Annual%20Title%20IX%20Report%202016-17.pdf" target="_blank">annual reports</a> summarizing aggregate statistics on the types of student cases they handle.</p>
<p><strong>Q: </strong>How do you know that the efforts you’ve undertaken since the CASA survey are having a positive impact? And what new initiatives can you tell the MIT community to expect to see in the coming weeks and months?</p>
<p><strong>A: </strong>I am measuring our progress across three key indicators. The first is that we are seeing more students come forward to seek support for or to report unwanted sexual behavior. VPR is serving more clients and taking more calls to their 24/7 hotline than ever before. The Title IX Office handled 118 and 115 student sexual misconduct cases in academic years 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively. This represents a roughly 24 percent increase over their 2014-2015 caseload.</p>
<p>We think these increases can be attributed to our education and outreach work: More members of our community know what sexual assault is, understand where they can turn to for help, and trust our support resources to provide critical services.</p>
<p>The second indicator that tells me we are on the right track is the robust level of engagement we’re seeing from all corners of the Institute — more and more students, faculty, and staff are invested in changing attitudes and behaviors and creating a safer, more respectful and inclusive environment on campus. Some examples of this engagement are:</p>
<p>•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;For the past two years, the&nbsp;faculty, students and staff&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<a href="http://facultygovernance.mit.edu/committee/committee-sexual-misconduct-prevention-and-response">Institute&nbsp;Committee on Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response (CSMPR)</a>,&nbsp;under the leadership of Associate Professor David Singer, have worked tirelessly to develop a roadmap for ending sexual harassment and misconduct at MIT. The senior administration values the committee’s thoughtfulness, care, and&nbsp;sensitivity, and their recommendations have helped to shape decisions about new faculty and staff training, a consensual relationships policy, and complaint resolution procedures.&nbsp;We look forward to continuing to work with this committee as we improve our policies and processes.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;VPR and Title IX are seeing an uptick in requests from departments, labs, student organizations, and residential life staff for trainings (to request one, email <a href="mailto:titleix@mit.edu">titleix@mit.edu</a>).<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;MIT’s Interfraternity Council’s (IFC) sexual misconduct committee partnered with VPR and Alcohol and Other Drugs Services (AODS) to launch the Consent Awareness and Prevention (CAP) certification program that incentivizes and recognizes fraternities that prioritize member education and co-sponsor awareness events with VPR.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;The Department of Chemistry is set to launch a program that will offer every lab group the opportunity to receive training on inclusive environments, sexual harassment, and bystander intervention. We expect that this pilot will be a model that other departments can and will adopt.</p>
<p>The third indicator comes from our students. They are telling us that their peers treat one another with respect. In 2015, 80 percent of undergraduates who responded to the Undergraduate Enrolled Student Survey agreed that “Students at MIT treat one another with respect.” In the 2017 Student Quality of Life Survey, which went to all MIT students, nearly 90 percent of undergraduates and graduate students agreed with the same statement.</p>
<p>These are all positive signs, but I know that our work is not done. We have to sustain the momentum we’ve created on student support and education, and constantly evaluate the impact we’re having. And we must increase the attention we’re paying to what our students, faculty, and staff are experiencing in their classrooms, labs, and offices. Here are some of the ways we plan to do that:</p>
<p>•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;By the end of this academic year, all current faculty, staff, and postdocs will be expected to complete sexual harassment and misconduct training to increase their understanding about how to prevent and respond to these issues.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;A new consensual relationships in workplace or academic environment policy will address relationships that may raise concerns of conflict of interest, abuse of authority, favoritism, and unfair treatment.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;MindHandHeart has launched the new Department Support Project in several academic departments to help share best practices and coordinate climate enhancements, with a focus on gender bias and discrimination issues.<br />
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;We will administer a sexual assault survey to students in the 2018-19 academic year so that we can measure and effectively respond to shifts in attitudes, behaviors, and culture since our 2014 survey.</p>
<p><strong>Q: </strong>A wave of national sexual harassment and abuse cases has come to light in recent months. How do you think this moment will influence MIT’s education and prevention efforts?</p>
<p><strong>A: </strong>First, I think what’s been reported nationally and locally is deeply disturbing, and underscores that sexual misconduct affects individuals, workplaces, and institutions everywhere in our country.</p>
<p>I think, though, that good can come out of this moment: People at MIT and across the nation are talking about these problems, and that’s the start of finding the solutions we urgently need. Against the backdrop of the national dialogue that’s happening right now, I believe we can double down on our commitment to addressing all types of sexual misconduct at MIT. With partners from other offices, I’m prepared to continue this vital work, and I know that there are many students, faculty, and staff who are as well.</p>
Cynthia BarnhartPhoto: Dominick ReuterCommunity, Student life, Faculty, Staff, Students, Administration, 3 QuestionsNew chapter for theater at MIT opens with “Everybody,” a morality play for our timehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/new-chapter-theater-mit-opens-everybody-morality-play-1120
Starting with inaugural performance in new facility, students immerse themselves in all aspects of making theater.Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00:00 -0500School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Scienceshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/new-chapter-theater-mit-opens-everybody-morality-play-1120<p>“Everybody,” the inaugural performance in MIT’s new theater building, is a 2017 play based on “Everyman,” the venerable 15th century English morality play. As performed last week at MIT, “Everybody” at once updates a masterwork from the distant past, and represents the future — the great range of new arts opportunities that the new Building W97 is making possible at MIT.</p>
<p>Speaking at a preview performance of “Everybody,” Institute Professor Marcus Thompson said, “It’s hard to describe the thrill of the MIT performing arts now having our own ‘lab’ where we can experiment, rehearse, collaborate, create — and share our work with the MIT community and the wider culture.”</p>
<p>The first MIT theater production to be designed, rehearsed, built, and staged in W97’s purpose-built space enabled MIT students to be far more immersed in creating and making. From building sets, to problem-solving light and sound installations, to gaining experience in stagecraft and narrative, the students’ activities epitomize the Institute’s maker culture.</p>
<p>”Everybody” showcases not only the production values the new space affords, but also reflects the Institute’s priority to engage students in developing new and deepened perspectives on the world. “The MIT mission is to serve humanity,” said Thompson, “and the arts are a powerful way for our students to grow in knowledge and understanding of the human condition.”</p>
<p>Standing in the new blackbox theater, illuminated by a spotlight, President L. Rafael Reif said: “The arts are critical to the MIT experience.They give our students tools they need to succeed — not simply as scientists, engineers, and scholars, but as informed contributors to society — as citizens.”</p>
<p><strong>A home for innovation and experimentation</strong><br />
<br />
In fulfilling this aspect of their mission, the MIT Theater Arts faculty plan to bring more diverse voices and new plays like “Everybody” to campus, another ambition the ingeniously designed W97 facility makes possible. “There is a great focus at MIT on innovation and experimentation in all the technical and scientific areas, and our students also want and need to know about the comparable range of exciting innovation, research, and experimentation in the arts,” says Anna Kohler, the noted artist and senior lecturer in MIT Theater Arts who directed “Everybody.”</p>
<p>The demand is great. Student enrollment in theater arts has doubled since 2012, and Course 21M (Music and Theater Arts, or MTA) currently has the fifth largest enrollment of any course at MIT. In 2015, MIT added a BS in theater to give the most engaged students a broad foundation in theoretical and practical studies as well as intensive practice in performance and design.</p>
<p>Kohler adds that as MIT Theater Arts is “transforming more and more into a research program, it is more valuable than ever to bring the voices of experimental playwrights and theater-makers to the MIT student body.”</p>
<p>“Everybody” more than fits this criteria because playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins reimagines the original text to give ample space for social critique and technical experimentation. One of the actors, Natalia Guerrero ’14, who majored in physics with a writing minor, says the production showed her that a play is “so much bigger than the text. There’s movement, action, light, sound, music, video — all these tools breathe life into the pages of dialogue, making them into something real and vital.”</p>
<p><strong>A feast and a journey</strong></p>
<p>The show opens with a medieval banquet on the steps of Salzburg Cathedral, where Hugo von Hoffmannsthal’s 1911 play “Jedermann” is being performed. Kohler included this prelude for historical context. “Jedermann,” like “Everybody,” follows the same basic plot as its source, “Everyman.” The protagonist, Everyman, is on top, until he isn’t. He learns that he is dying and must account for his choices. He journeys toward life’s end unconsoled by friends, family, or material wealth. Only one companion, Good Deeds (or, in the Jacobs-Jenkins version, Love), accompanies him to the grave.</p>
<p>When the opening “Jedermann” scene ends, the set is reconfigured. The massive banquet table becomes the stage for “Everybody.” Both actors and audience sit around it — a reminder that everyone partakes equally of this feast. The theater becomes a techno-fiesta adorned with brightly colored Dia de los Muertos decor, mariachi music, and dancing skeletons, all of which lend levity to the sober subject.</p>
<p>On this multimedia production, Kohler, an early member of the Wooster Group, a theater company highly regarded for combining live audio and video in surprising ways, collaborated with Joshua Higgason, a technical instructor, and Sara Brown, director of design for MTA. The associate designer, Brandon Sanchez, a senior in electrical engineering and computer science, created several key elements for the set, and students in MTA’s stagecraft class are running the show each night.</p>
<p>With its allegorical characters, video interludes, and nontraditional staging, “Everybody” affords the 13 student actors in the ensemble ample opportunities to deepen and expand their performance skills. For many of the students, the show is also their first immersion in all the facets of a full-scale production, from acting, voice, and movement work, to lights, sets, costumes, and props.</p>
<p><strong>Creative identity </strong></p>
<p>“I don’t love how my body keeps changing,” Everybody laments as she plods to the grave. It’s a moment of awareness anyone might have. We can see ourselves in “Everybody,” which led Kohler to select it for the students. “It’s a profoundly human show … about humans being human together. Given the level of isolation we all experience, particularly around fearful events in life, the need for connecting is very important,” she says.</p>
<p>Grace Kuffner, a sophomore double majoring in biology and theater arts, is one of multiple actors who portray Everybody. (The cast draws straws during each performance to determine who will play the lead.) Kuffner observes that while most roles allow an actor to embody “someone entirely different,” Everybody presents a special challenge, because “my character isn't different from me at all. Just like Everybody, I am going to die, and I worry about how, when, why, and with whom. Everybody talks like me, thinks like me, and has some of my own flaws.”</p>
<p>Herng Yi Cheng, a senior majoring in mathematics with a concentration in theater arts, says, “In my role as Love, my relationship with Everybody changes depending on who plays that role each night, because different people bring different emotions and acting styles to the character.” For this show, Cheng says he worked “to say every line as if for the first time,” without relying on the “‘muscle memory’ of well-practiced intonation and gestures.”</p>
<p>Such skills will serve these actors beyond this production, and beyond the theater. Natalia Guerrero ’14, a research associate at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, says that for her and her castmates, reconciling creative aspirations with the drive to excel in a STEM field is a question of identity: “We’re all searching for a way to do what seems impossible, to develop fully all the aspects of our creative and our intellectual identity. It’s really affirming, therefore, that in rehearsal, Anna is clear that she’s working with us as actors, as people who have this creative work as part of our identity.”</p>
<p>In Kohler’s view, producing plays like “Everybody” at MIT benefits not only those students involved in theater arts, but also the whole student body, who just might need to experience a morality play that addresses some of their anxieties. One student in the audience said it best after the opening performance: “I’m a lot less worried about my p-sets now. This play kind of puts everything in perspective.”</p>
<p><em>Story prepared by MIT SHASS Communications</em></p>
<p><em>Editorial Team: Sharon Lacey, Emily Hiestand</em></p>
For the MIT production of the 2017 play “Everybody,” the medieval banquet scene from Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s 1911 play “Jedermann” was performed as a prelude — to show the historical roots of the themes in “Everybody.” Both plays are based on the 15th century English morality play “Everyman."Photo: Jonathan Sachs, MIT SHASS CommunicationsArts, Theater, Faculty, Students, Campus buildings and architecture, SHASS, Clubs and activities, Classes and programs, Student lifeTwo MIT students named Rhodes Scholarshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/two-mit-students-named-rhodes-scholars-1118
Mary Clare Beytagh and Matthew Chun will begin postgraduate studies at Oxford University next fall. Sat, 18 Nov 2017 23:05:25 -0500Julia Mongo | Office of Distinguished Fellowshipshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/two-mit-students-named-rhodes-scholars-1118<p>Two MIT students, Mary Clare Beytagh and Matthew Chun, were selected this weekend as Rhodes Scholars and will begin postgraduate studies at Oxford University next fall.</p>
<p>Recipients of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship are selected based on scholarly achievement, character, commitment to the public good, and leadership potential. The scholarship provides funding for one to three years of graduate study at Oxford.</p>
<p>This year’s two Rhodes Scholars from MIT bring to 51 the total number of MIT winners honored since the scholarship was first awarded to Americans in 1904. The MIT students were supported by MIT’s Office of Distinguished Fellowships and the Presidential Committee on Distinguished Fellowships.</p>
<p>“It has been a privilege to serve as co-chair of the Presidential Committee for Distinguished Fellowships alongside Professor Rebecca Saxe, and to watch these amazing students grow through the process,” says Professor Will Broadhead. “We could not be more proud of how they represent MIT to the world.”</p>
<p><strong>Mary Clare Beytagh</strong></p>
<p>Mary Clare Beytagh, from Dallas, Texas, is an MIT senior pursuing a double major in biology and literature. At Oxford, Beytagh plans to undertake an MS degree in integrated immunology to prepare for her future career as a physician-scientist.</p>
<p>Growing up, Beytagh trained as a ballet dancer, and studied and performed with the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet and New York’s American Ballet Theatre. But she decided to forego a career as a professional dancer to focus on science. Beytagh became fascinated with biomedical research in high school when she conducted research on genetic drivers of B-cell lymphoma at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. At MIT, she has been an undergraduate research assistant since her freshman year in the laboratory of Professor Tyler Jacks, where she has worked on several cancer projects, including engineering mouse models to study immune responses against lung and colorectal cancers.</p>
<p>She was a presenter at the MIT Biology Undergraduate Research Symposium, and a speaker and poster presenter at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting. Beytagh has also conducted research at The Rockefeller University with Professor C. David Allis, and this past January did a clinical research externship in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital. For her accomplishments in the humanities, she was selected as a Burchard Scholar.</p>
<p>On campus, Beytagh holds executive positions with the Leadership Training Institute, a student group that provides a 12-week spring mentorship program for underserved Boston-area high school students. She is an active member of MedLinks, offering peer counseling on physical and mental health issues to fellow students in her residential hall, and serves as a teaching assistant for the MIT mathematics department in the Experimental Study Group (ESG), a freshman learning community. Beytagh has applied her Spanish-speaking skills by volunteering as an interpreter at multiple hospitals and at the Massachusetts Bay Food Pantry.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew Chun</strong></p>
<p>Matthew Chun, from Arlington, Virginia, is an MIT senior majoring in mechanical engineering with a minor in management science. As a Rhodes Scholar, Chun seeks to further his knowledge of policy and law, with the goal of advising organizations that bring life-improving technologies to countries around the world. At Oxford, he will pursue a second BA in jurisprudence before returning to the U.S. to enroll in law school with a focus on intellectual property.</p>
<p>As a freshman, Chun joined Professor Hugh Herr’s Biomechatronics Laboratory, where he helped design an exoskeleton adaptor. His experience there inspired him to co-found Need-a-Knee, LLC, a student-led company that has developed a low-cost transfemoral rotator for above-knee amputees. Chun and his team have field-tested the device in India and partnered with international and domestic humanitarian organizations. Besides winning multiple awards for this technology, including the 2017 MIT IDEAS Global Challenge, Chun has secured over $50,000 in funding to develop prototypes and begin manufacturing. He currently serves as the chief executive officer and head of business development for the company.</p>
<p>Chun was an “innovator-in-training” at Tikkun Olam Makers in Israel, where he managed multiple projects to build open-source assistive technologies for people with disabilities, and led a project to design an affordable prosthetic dog paw. Chun has also sought opportunities to gain experience in the business aspects of technology; he has interned with companies in venture capital, investment banking, and patent law. He has conducted independent research on the legal challenges faced by new technologies with John Akula, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. &nbsp;</p>
<p>A two-time Academic All-American wrestler for MIT, Chun currently serves as team captain. He is also the co-editor-in-chief of <em>Et Spiritus</em>, MIT’s student-run journal of Christian thought, has held executive roles with the national engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi, and was selected as a member of an MIT delegation to Congress to advocate for federal science policy.</p>
Mary Clare Beytagh and Matthew ChunPhotos: Ian MacLellanStudents, Undergraduate, Awards, honors and fellowships, education, Education, teaching, academics, MISTI, Student life, Rhodes scholarsA year of many firsts for the MIT Energy Hackathonhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/year-of-many-firsts-mit-energy-hackathon-1117
With its best showing yet in a three-year history, the MIT Energy Hackathon fostered innovation with technological advancement from students around the world.Fri, 17 Nov 2017 17:35:01 -0500Fatima Husain | Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/year-of-many-firsts-mit-energy-hackathon-1117<p>Over the first weekend of November, the lobby of MIT’s Vannevar Bush Building served as the site for many introductions, brainstorming sessions, and, ultimately, innovation. Participants from all over the world traveled to Cambridge to compete in the three-day annual MIT Energy Hackathon.</p>
<p>In previous years the competition, which challenges competitors to address real-life issues in the worldwide energy sector, drew in 20 or so teams. This year, the number of teams effectively doubled, and a group of approximately 50 high school students from China competed as well.</p>
<p>The sharp and global rise in participants reflects well on the efforts of the organization that planned the event: the MIT Energy Club. The student group aims to generate conversations about the world’s current energy challenges and holds various events and meetings throughout the academic year.</p>
<p>“This is quite a unique type of hackathon,” said Akshat Agarwal, co-director of the hackathon and graduate student in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “In most types of hackathons, you sort of just turn up and come up with an idea. In the energy industry, it’s way too complicated to do that.”</p>
<p>In an effort to ease the complication and to facilitate direct involvement in energy issues, the organizers solicited problem statements from nine companies. The companies which submitted problem statements included McKinsey and Company, Pioneer Natural Resources, The Energy Authority, Shell, Purpose Energy, General Motors, Cimetrics, Customer First Renewables, and the NESEA Building Energy Conference.</p>
<p>After the event’s opening remarks in Huntington Hall, the problem statements were presented in succession by company representatives to an eager crowd of 300-plus. Following each presentation, a brief chatter could be heard amongst the crowd, indicating a competitive contemplation.</p>
<p>After all the challenges were presented, participants headed down to Lobby 13 where they ate dinner, met other participants, and organized into teams. Company representatives stood by labeled easels and answered questions about their challenges.</p>
<p>“Most people come in without a team,” said Sarah Curtis, co-director of the event and junior studying chemical engineering. “If they congregate near the challenges they’re interested in, then they’ll find likeminded individuals they can connect with.”</p>
<p>Though the general design of the hackathon has remained similar over the years, this year’s event organizers — known as the Hackathon Team — incorporated new elements. Each new element was designed to enhance the hackathon experience for competitors and company representatives.</p>
<p>The first element: an algorithm to assign challenges to teams. After dinner and discussion, teams used an online portal to submit a list of the top four challenges they wished to address.</p>
<p>The new algorithm used the submitted data to make sure that no challenges were over- or underrepresented while also ensuring that as many teams as possible were assigned their first or second choice.</p>
<p>The algorithm “optimizes generally for happiness within those constraints,” said Curtis.</p>
<p>After the algorithm assigned challenges to teams the next morning, competitors set off to work all over the MIT campus. Most, however, stayed near Lobby 13. The Hackathon Team stayed in the lobby from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., fielding questions from participants and company representatives.</p>
<p>Some company representatives spoke with students as they worked. “It’s really exciting for me,” said Robert Trinnear, a representative from The Energy Authority. “When you see these young people on a Friday night ... working away on these problems and getting this fresh perspective. It’s exciting for the future of this country.”</p>
<p>On the final day of the event, teams displayed their proposed strategies on e-poster boards — another first for the event. Teams gave two-minute presentations to 18 judges drawn in from the energy industry and MIT community.</p>
<p>Judges asked questions following the rapid presentations, and entered their evaluations onto tablets. The tabulated results were used to select nine final teams, which each presented their proposals to the entire audience of judges and participants in Huntington Hall.</p>
<p>The final nine teams learned of their selection live — only seconds before they gave their presentations to the audience. Similar to the setup of the e-poster session, teams gave two-minute presentations and answered questions from judges.</p>
<p>Each particular problem statement had its own winner, and the Hackathon also gave out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes to overall competition winners.</p>
<p>The team that won 1st place overall was the Electrons, which included college students from MIT, Mount Holyoke College, and Northeastern University, as well as a high school student from China. The team was awarded a $2,000 cash prize.</p>
<p>After the success of this year’s event, The Hackathon Team has high hopes for those who participated.</p>
<p>“I really hope that companies and students stay in touch,” said Agarwal. “The main success of the event is if they stay in touch.”</p>
<p>Agarwal added that he is excited for future years of the event.</p>
<p>“I might participate next year instead!” he said.</p>
MIT Energy Hackathon leaders handed out stickers at this year's registration tables.Photo: Fatima HusainStudent life, Special events and guest speakers, Contests and academic competitions, Invention, Industry, Energy, Sustainability, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E)MindHandHeart study break http://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-mindhandheart-initiative-funds-creative-study-breaks-1114
Sushi, gratitude cards, and puppy visits are supported by a grant program that promotes wellness and community building.Tue, 14 Nov 2017 11:20:00 -0500Kollin Wasserlein | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-mindhandheart-initiative-funds-creative-study-breaks-1114<p>On a Tuesday last month at 8:25 p.m.&nbsp;in Baker House, students were scattered around the dorm’s lounges, chipping away at PSETs and studying for exams.</p>
<p>At 8:30, more than 50 of them rushed down to the first floor for a moment away.</p>
<p>Residents of Baker were treated to sushi, gratitude card writing, and a visit from the stress dogs of&nbsp;<a href="http://puppylab.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Puppy Lab</a>. This was the third in a series of study breaks organized by <a href="http://orgchart.mit.edu/chancellor" target="_blank">Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart</a>, MindHandHeart (MHH), and the Division of Student Life to promote the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund" target="_blank">MHH Innovation Fund</a>, which allows students, faculty, and staff to apply for grants up to $10,000 in order to increase wellness in the MIT community.</p>
<p>Meditation at Maseeh preceded the Baker study break, as well as a showcase of prior Innovation Fund winner, <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/algorithm-connects-students-to-interesting-people-on-campus-1017" target="_self">MIT Connect</a>, in East Campus. These study breaks are meant to give students a moment to breathe during the stress of an MIT semester, and learn about opportunities through MHH to boost morale, promote wellness, and build community at MIT.</p>
<p>“I believe this is a healthy way to help students better strike a balance between their academic and social lives,” said freshman Tyler Schoulte, a first-year Baker resident who attended the study break.</p>
<p>MindHandHeart and the Innovation Fund are sponsored by <a href="http://orgchart.mit.edu/chancellor">Chancellor Barnhart</a>, who attended the Baker study break.</p>
<p>“These study breaks give us a chance to hang out with students and their house teams outside of class and the normal 9-to-5 workday,”&nbsp;Barnhart said. “It’s a great way for us to see firsthand what’s so distinct and special about their communities. And it’s an opportunity for us to spread the word about MindHandHeart and encourage students to apply their innovation, problem-solving, and compassion to an Innovation Fund project.”</p>
<p>In the past two years, the Innovation Fund has supported 40 diverse projects, which aim to increase awareness of mental health, promote life skills, and build communities of support on campus. Of those projects, 11 are now self-sustaining, including MIT Connect, which has spread to over 20 colleges since its creation. More than $140,000 has been awarded to applicants, a number that will grow&nbsp;when this year’s recipients are announced in late November.</p>
<p>Study breaks around campus provide a well-deserved breather for MIT’s students —&nbsp;a chance to pet a dog, eat some good food, or write a thank you card to someone who deserves it. It doesn’t take much to make MIT a welcoming place, just the initiative to make change for the better.</p>
Baker residents enjoy time with one of the furry stress therapists of the MIT Puppy Lab during a recent MindHandHeart-sponsored study break.Photo: Kollin WasserleinChancellor, Community, Grants, Residential life, Student life, MindHandHeartMIT unites for Puerto Rico hurricane reliefhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-community-unites-puerto-rico-hurricane-relief-efforts-1109
Student-organized donation drive receives overwhelming support from the Institute community during its three-day fundraiser.Thu, 09 Nov 2017 15:00:00 -0500Nicole Cooper | Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-community-unites-puerto-rico-hurricane-relief-efforts-1109<p>Last month, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MITAPR/" target="_blank">MIT Association of Puerto Rican Students</a> organized a three-day donation drive&nbsp;to help Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.</p>
<p>With an entire population affected by&nbsp;loss of electricity, shortages of food and water, and the inability to contact family members, two members of the MIT Association of Puerto Rican Students, seniors Gabriel Ginorio and William Rodriguez,&nbsp;decided to utilize resources on campus to help.&nbsp;</p>
<p>“When we saw pictures of the flooding, people losing their homes and just the figures, we wanted to take action in some tangible way,” Rodriguez says.</p>
<p>First, Ginorio and Rodriguez did&nbsp;research to locate any ongoing hurricane relief donation drives being held in the Boston area. They found an organization called Puerto Rico Rises – Boston, and were told that they were unable to send donations to Puerto Rico because the island’s ports were clogged. Due to a lack of truck drivers to distribute items, and debris blockage in the streets, it was difficult to transport donations from the port to those in need.</p>
<p>“In that moment,”&nbsp;Ginorio recalls, “I said, ‘We won’t be able to do the supply drive. We don’t have any storage for a month. How can we store something for a month? That’s not worth it.’”</p>
<p>The possibility of a donation drive at MIT came to fruition when Ginorio and Rodriguez got into contact with Henry Monroig, a pastor in Dorchester, Massachusetts who was taking&nbsp;time off from work to collect and deliver donations to Puerto Rico. Monroig had created a Facebook video about the difficulty of trying to send a pallet to the island. Curt Schilling, a former Red Sox player, came across it and offered to help Monroig with the cost of transporting the donations.</p>
<p>“Henry immediately became the only option to send materials to Puerto Rico in the whole Boston area,” Ginorio says. “So, we put faith in him and said, ‘You know what? We’re going to do this drive.’”</p>
<p>The group organized a Venmo account for monetary donations and set-up a table collecting donations outside of the Stratton Student Center. Once the group started advertising,&nbsp;MIT students, staff, and faculty responded with tremendous enthusiasm and generosity. “We had an amazing — overwhelming, really — amount of support from the MIT community,” says Ginorio.</p>
<p>In total, they raised more than $5,700 in monetary donations and 6,000 pounds of in-kind donations, which have served over 5,000 people in need on the island. “It was really an expression of the generosity of the MIT community,”&nbsp;Rodriguez says.</p>
<p>Support from the Institute did not end here. On the last day of the drive, Monroig was unable to pick up the final batch of donations. An MIT Police officer called the MIT Parking and Transportation Office and asked them if anyone would be willing to deliver the items to Monroig outside of their working hours.</p>
<p>“They are just about to leave for their homes and we’re asking them to make another one and a half hour trip to go deliver and come back,” explains Ginorio, “and amazingly, they showed up with the brightest smiles on their faces, willing to help, willing to put every supply into the trucks.”</p>
<p>MIT’s Office of Student Support and Wellbeing offers all MIT students support by providing individualized services, coordinating resources, and offering innovative prevention and education programs. Whether it be a tough academic week or a natural disaster, staff are commited to helping all students in times of need.</p>
<p>David Randall, senior associate dean of student support and wellbeing, says, “The MIT community is incredibly resilient and incredibly compassionate. It rallies around itself when there is tragedy on campus and it thinks about the world when there is tragedy away from MIT.”</p>
<p>Randall says each student in the Institute is inherently a problem-solver, and he recalls a conversation he had with a group of Puerto Rican students about the lack of fresh drinking water on the island. “They didn’t want to talk about getting bottles of water to Puerto Rico because anybody could do that. They wanted to solve the problem. And that’s what makes MIT different than every other place.”</p>
<p>Ginorio and Rodriguez have also created a <a href="http://mitci.mit.edu/" target="_blank">website</a> where members of the community can collaborate and learn more about what they can do to further help Puerto Rico.&nbsp;</p>
MIT students collect donations for Puerto Rico hurricane relief efforts outside of the Stratton Student Center.Photo courtesy of the MIT Association of Puerto Rican Students.Student life, Students, Volunteering, outreach, public service, Natural disasters, Disaster response, Community, Staff, Cambridge, Boston and region3Q: Ian Waitz on graduate housing, other prioritieshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/3q-ian-waitz-graduate-housing-other-priorities-1018
Vice chancellor reflects upon his first few months on the job, progress to date, and future plans.
Wed, 18 Oct 2017 16:30:01 -0400Office of the Vice Chancellorhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/3q-ian-waitz-graduate-housing-other-priorities-1018<p><em>In April 2017, MIT Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart appointed Ian A. Waitz as vice chancellor. The former dean of engineering has been in his new post since July, and is responsible for leading and integrating the offices of undergraduate and graduate education. His early priorities include enhancing </em><em>the first-year student academic experience; improving areas such as advising, professional development, diversity and inclusion, and well-being; and implementing the residential education innovations called for in the&nbsp;</em><a href="https://future.mit.edu/" target="_blank"><em>Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education</em></a><em>. Waitz recently spoke about his first few months on the job, progress to date, and future plans.</em></p>
<p><strong>Q: </strong>Let’s start with an issue that’s received a lot of attention as of late: graduate student housing. The chancellor, provost, and executive vice president and treasurer have <a href="http://orgchart.mit.edu/node/5/letters_to_community/expanding-graduate-student-housing" target="_blank">written to graduate students</a> saying that they will add 950 beds to MIT’s graduate student housing stock and evaluate graduate student housing needs every three years. These developments stem in part from the work that you and the Graduate Student Housing Working Group have been doing since late August. Can you tell us more about this group and the interim assessment you just released?</p>
<p><strong>A: </strong>I want to start with a bit of background and context before getting to the interim assessment. As I discovered when I was a dean and department head, space at MIT is at the heart of most things — whether it’s new, old, or to-be-renovated space, and whether it’s for research, teaching, or administration. MIT’s relatively compact footprint along the Charles River, while often challenging, contributes to our culture, deep spirit of collaboration, and close connections with the cities of Cambridge and Boston. Likewise, where students live deeply influences their overall experience here, including their academic experience. In that sense, we must think of MIT not only as an institution, but also as a home for our students while they are here.</p>
<p>I had those realities in mind as the chair of the Graduate Student Housing Working Group. In fact, my office cannot complete part of our charge, enhancing the graduate academic experience, unless we partner with the Division of Student Life to explore issues like housing.</p>
<p>The Graduate Student Housing Working Group is, first and foremost, about research and intelligence-gathering, so we can educate ourselves and the MIT community about the complexities of our current and future housing situation. I have received a crash course over the last six&nbsp;weeks! I also give a lot of credit to the Graduate Student Council and the MIT <a href="http://gsan.mit.edu" target="_blank">Graduate Student Apartments Now</a> (GSAN) efforts for accelerating the pace of our efforts, as the formal charge of the group by the chancellor only <a href="http://orgchart.mit.edu/node/5/letters_to_community/update-graduate-student-housing" target="_blank">happened this past August</a>.</p>
<p>As we mention in the interim assessment — which, in many ways, bolsters the prior <a href="http://orgchart.mit.edu/sites/default/files/reports/20140603_Provost_GradHousingFinal.pdf" target="_blank">Clay Report</a>&nbsp;— MIT has been wrestling with the issue for some time now. And we’ve made significant progress. If you include new, renovated, and repurposed residences like Sidney Pacific, the Warehouse, Ashdown, and 70 Amherst, over the last two decades the Institute has invested $700 million&nbsp;providing for 1,470 new beds. In 2020 with the opening the Kendall Square graduate tower there will be an additional 454 beds (about 250 net new beds after Eastgate is closed). We currently house 38 percent&nbsp;of our 6,500 graduate students in MIT housing. Almost 95 percent&nbsp;of new students and 60 percent&nbsp;of continuing students who apply for single grad housing get it, and that rate is about 75 percent&nbsp;for family housing.</p>
<p>However, despite our significant increases in on-campus housing, we have about 1,000 more students living off-campus than two decades ago (now about 4,000 total). The rapid increase in off-campus rental rates is driving up their cost of living. Twenty-three percent&nbsp;of the off-campus students who responded to our survey say they would prefer to live on campus for their entire program, which is double the percentage that responded similarly just four years ago.</p>
<p>The report also provides a lot of new knowledge on what housing attributes our graduate students value. We derived this from a rigorous conjoint analysis, which we pursued on the advice of experts in the Sloan School of Management. We had a general sense of these things in the past, but not in a way that we could quantify them (and understand how they differ among different segments of the population). For example, we learned that in general our graduate students value price, unit type, short commute time, air conditioning, and access to grocery/restaurants most highly. They have a lower willingness to pay for bedroom size, building amenities, sense of community, parking, and fitness centers.&nbsp;When we combine willingness-to-pay for different housing attributes with detailed costing knowledge, we can identify new capacity options that best satisfy student needs while minimizing the financial impacts on MIT.</p>
<p><strong>Q: </strong>What have you learned from working so closely with graduate students and where does the working group go from here?</p>
<p><strong>A:</strong> While our report offers a lot of data and useful insights, I think the real value is that it strengthens our ongoing partnership with our graduate students. We all have a vested interest in the outcome, but ultimately, they are the folks who will inhabit these spaces.</p>
<p>All of us — administrators and the graduate students on the working group — did this study and learned about its results together, and in turn, shared it with the entire MIT community. I am committed to that kind of transparency for all the issues my office tackles.</p>
<p>In terms of next steps for the working group, we will use the results of the conjoint analysis to build a housing simulator to test different scenarios for fulfilling MITs new commitment to graduate housing capacity. It will be interesting and rewarding&nbsp;for all of us to apply these methods and help shape the future graduate housing landscape at MIT. All members of the MIT community are <a href="http://mit.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0dmvmmdRUhwIu4B" target="_blank">welcome to offer their comments</a> on the Graduate Student Housing Working Group preliminary recommendations.</p>
<p>I know some were worried that with the integration of the offices of undergraduate and graduate education (now both in the Office of the Vice Chancellor), grad students in particular might lose representation or a seat at the table. That’s not been the case with the housing working group, and it won’t be with any other issue.</p>
<p><strong>Q: </strong>What else are you and your office focused on?</p>
<p><strong>A:</strong> My office is engaged in a few key priorities right now. We are integrating two existing offices —&nbsp;the Offices of Undergraduate Education and the Office of the Graduate Education, or OUE and OGE —&nbsp;into one (hopefully seamless!) organization that does an even better job supporting our students, faculty, and staff. The aim is to better coordinate student services and functions where we can, and also provide customized, robust support and advocacy for undergraduates and graduates.</p>
<p>As part of that I have held a series of all-hands meetings with staff and students, and it has been a gratifying process. The outputs have been stellar. Staff members have shared their hopes for and fears about the new organization; presented different ways to collaborate; designed potential organizational structures; and defined a fantastic set of collective values, with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion.</p>
<p>While we have a lot more work to do in shaping the organization, we are not standing still.</p>
<p>Already, offices and individuals have stepped up to refresh the first-year undergraduate orientation, with a focus on encouraging students to take advantage of opportunities to explore different majors. With help from faculty from all five MIT schools plus&nbsp;administrators&nbsp;and students, we kicked off an ambitious endeavor to evaluate how to improve the first-year academic experience for undergraduates. In addition, the former dean of OUE, Denny Freeman, is expanding his popular “<a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/adding-hands-on-practice-to-science-engineering-classes-0130" target="_self">Mens et Manus” advising seminar</a>. Stay tuned for more details about our plans in the coming weeks.</p>
<p>At the graduate level, in addition to the work on housing, we are focusing on several other issues, including how to provide more professional development opportunities.</p>
<p>While there is a lot to do, I am having a huge amount of fun. It is extremely rewarding work. And the people I have the opportunity to work with are great — especially the students with whom I have gotten to work much more closely in this role.</p>
MIT representatives attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a major new graduate student residence hall along Main Street in Kendall Square. Left to right: Peter Cummings, executive director for administration in the Division of Student Life; David Friedrich, senior director of housing operations and renewal in the Division of Student Life; Krithika Ramchander, treasurer of the Graduate Student Council; Cynthia Barnhart, chancellor; Suzy Nelson, vice president and dean for student life; Dennis Collins, director of residential life for capital renewal in the Division of Student Life; and Ian Waitz, vice chancellor.Photo: Allan DinesStudent life, Campus buildings and architecture, Facilities, Graduate, postdoctoral, Chancellor, Kendall Square, Cambridge, Boston and regionDigital Diploma debuts at MIThttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-debuts-secure-digital-diploma-using-bitcoin-blockchain-technology-1017
Using Bitcoin&#039;s blockchain technology, the Institute has become one of the first universities to issue recipient-owned virtual credentials.Tue, 17 Oct 2017 15:10:01 -0400Elizabeth Durant | Alison Trachy | Office of Undergraduate Educationhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-debuts-secure-digital-diploma-using-bitcoin-blockchain-technology-1017<p>In 1868, the fledgling Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Boylston Street awarded its first diplomas to 14 graduates. Since then, it has issued paper credentials to&nbsp;more than 207,000 undergraduate and graduate students in much the same way.</p>
<p>But this summer, as part of a <a href="http://web.mit.edu/registrar/records/certs/digital_faqs.html" target="_blank">pilot program</a>, a cohort of 111 graduates became the first to have the option to receive their diplomas on their smartphones via an app, in addition to the traditional format. The pilot resulted from a partnership between the MIT Registrar’s Office and Learning Machine, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based software development company.</p>
<p>The app is&nbsp;called Blockcerts Wallet, and it enables students to quickly and easily get a verifiable, tamper-proof version of their diploma that they can share with employers, schools, family, and friends. To ensure the security of the diploma, the pilot utilizes the same blockchain technology that powers the digital currency Bitcoin. It also integrates with MIT’s identity provider, Touchstone. And while digital credentials aren’t new — some schools and businesses are already&nbsp;touting their use of&nbsp;them — the MIT pilot is groundbreaking because it gives students autonomy over their own records.</p>
<p>“From the beginning, one of our primary motivations has been to empower students to be the curators of their own credentials,” says Registrar and Senior Associate Dean Mary Callahan. “This pilot makes it possible for them to have ownership of their records and be able to share them in a secure way, with whomever they choose.”</p>
<p>The Institute is among the first universities to make the&nbsp;leap, says Chris Jagers, co-founder and CEO of Learning Machine.</p>
<p>“MIT has issued official records in a format that can exist even if the institution goes away, even if we go away as a vendor,” Jagers says. “People can own and use their official records, which is a fundamental shift.”</p>
<p><strong>Ideas collide</strong></p>
<p>When Callahan first read about the blockchain a few years ago, she was immediately intrigued. It&nbsp;seemed to provide permanence, convenience, and a level of security worthy of the student record, and she wondered:&nbsp;Could the Registrar’s Office use the&nbsp;technology to issue digital records, like a diploma? She decided to look into the possibility.</p>
<p>As it turned out, MIT’s experimentation with blockchain technology was already well underway. In 2015, Philipp Schmidt, the director of learning innovation at the MIT Media Lab, had begun&nbsp;issuing internal, non-academic digital certificates to his team. Schmidt&nbsp;had realized that, despite the rise of decentralized, informal online learning opportunities, there was no digital way to track and manage these accomplishments. He says he became&nbsp;interested in finding a “more modular credentialing environment, where you would get some kind of recognition for lots of things you did throughout your life.”</p>
<p>Soon, Learning Machine and Schmidt’s team at the Media Lab discovered they had a mutual interest in developing secure official records and began to collaborate. Throughout 2016, using Schmidt’s team’s prototypes, they developed an open-source toolkit called <a href="http://www.blockcerts.org/about.html" target="_blank">Blockcerts</a>, which any developer or school can use to issue and verify blockchain-based educational credentials.</p>
<p>When Callahan and Jagers connected last fall, it became clear that a partnership on a small pilot would be an ideal way to put Blockcerts to the test. “Mary was very up-to-date and had been introduced to concepts of cryptography, so she and her office were really excited to try out this technology,” says Jagers.</p>
<p>Callahan says that, for the Registrar's Office, “it was the perfect confluence: technology developed at MIT and a vendor who was aware of MIT’s culture as a community that values learning, at a time when a comprehensive record of lifelong learning was an evolving need.”</p>
<p><strong>Harnessing the power of the blockchain</strong></p>
<p>That technology draws on the Bitcoin blockchain,&nbsp;an open, global ledger that records transactions on a distributed database. Each transaction — known as a&nbsp;block —&nbsp;is encrypted, timestamped, and then added to the previous block on the chain, creating a timeline. A&nbsp;transaction cannot be modified once it is recorded, because any change in one block would require the alteration of all subsequent blocks, and because the information is distributed across a decentralized, worldwide network of computers.</p>
<p>The software Learning Machine developed uses the Bitcoin blockchain, but it’s not the only blockchain around. Jagers says that recently&nbsp;there has&nbsp;been a proliferation of new types of blockchains, but that Bitcoin remains the gold standard for Learning Machine’s purposes&nbsp;because it prioritizes security over other qualities like speed, cost, or ease of use. “We believe it’s still the right choice for official records that need to last a lifetime and work anywhere in the world,” he says.</p>
<p>Learning Machine also recognized early on that there was a missing link in the system, despite the potential of blockchain technology to make official, recipient-owned credentials a reality.&nbsp;In order for the information to be encrypted, the user also needs to obtain a public and private key — a set of unique numerical identifiers that represent them.</p>
<p>“It’s a huge roadblock to tell students to go generate public-private key pairs for the Bitcoin blockchain,” Jagers says. “Nobody has any idea what you’re talking about.”</p>
<p>Blockcerts Wallet solves that problem. After the student downloads the app, it generates the public-private key pair and sends the public key to MIT, where it&nbsp;is written into the&nbsp;digital record. Next, a one-way hash (a string of numbers that can be used for verification later) is added to the blockchain. The diploma information itself doesn’t go onto the blockchain, just the timestamped transaction indicating that MIT created the digital record. Finally, MIT emails the digital diploma (a JavaScript Object Notation file, or JSON) with the student’s public key inscribed into it. Because the mobile app on the student’s phone has their unique private key, the student can prove ownership of the diploma.</p>
<p><strong>The pilot begins</strong></p>
<p>This year, the Registrar’s Office contacted 85 master of finance and 26 master of science in media arts and sciences&nbsp;June graduates to let them know their secure digital diplomas were available via the Blockcerts Wallet app.</p>
<p>For students, the benefits go beyond mere novelty. They can share their diplomas almost immediately with whomever they please, free of charge, without involving an intermediary. This is&nbsp;particularly important for students who need to prove to an employer or another university that they have an MIT diploma. And thanks to the blockchain, the third party can easily verify that the diploma is legitimate without having to contact the Registrar’s Office. Using a <a href="https://credentials.mit.edu/" target="_blank">portal</a>, employers or schools can paste a link or upload a student’s digital diploma file and receive a verification immediately. The portal essentially uses the blockchain as a notary, locating the transaction ID (which identifies when the digital record was added to the blockchain), verifying the keys, and confirming that nothing has been altered since the record was added.</p>
<p>Callahan is pleased with the outcome of the pilot so far.</p>
<p>“Our goals were to build our own knowledge and confidence, while utilizing student feedback,” she says. “We believe this adds great value to higher education.” In fact, Callahan has already received inquiries about the pilot from a number of universities around the world and from colleagues in the European Commission.</p>
<p><strong>The promise of transformative&nbsp;technology</strong></p>
<p>Both Callahan and Jagers agree that the blockchain technology has enormous potential.</p>
<p>“We’ve just begun to scratch the surface of where this will lead. It’s really an exciting time,” Callahan says.</p>
<p>One possible application is creating stackable certificates on the blockchain, which would enable an individual to link credentials from different institutions — for example, an undergraduate degree from one university, a graduate degree from another, and a professional certification. Jagers says he believes it will soon be possible to embed links or IDs of other pre-existing digital records into a new meta-record.</p>
<p>“It’s not just about solving a problem,” he adds. “It really is transformative. And it could be as big as the web, because it affects every sector. It’s not just academic records. It’s being able to passively know that digital things are true. That creates a whole new reality across every sector.”</p>
<p>The Registrar’s Office has expanded the digital diploma pilot to include a cohort of students who graduated in September. Over the long term, Callahan hopes to explore the possibility of offering digital records for other learning credentials MIT students may obtain from programs such as MIT Professional Education, the Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program, and the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program.</p>
<p>Vice Chancellor&nbsp;Ian Waitz calls the new ability for MIT to issue robust and portable credentials&nbsp;“exciting, and necessary, to keep up with the demands of our on-campus students and learners around the world.”</p>
<p>“It’s also gratifying to see how innovation happens everywhere here, especially in places where you might not expect it like our Registrar’s Office,” Waitz says. “I applaud their creative experimentation and see their approach as a model and source of inspiration for others to push academic boundaries.”</p>
Using MIT's new digital diploma system, employers and schools can quickly verify that a graduate's degree is legitimate by using a link or uploading the student’s file. The verification process confirms that the information on the student’s record matches a receipt stored on the blockchain.Image courtesy of Learning Machine.Student life, Students, Media Lab, Apps, Computer science and technology, Technology and society, School of Architecture and PlanningAmerican Sign Language at MIThttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-american-sign-language-and-deaf-culture-club-promotes-asl-classes-0914
A new club is spreading awareness of Deaf culture and American Sign Language.Thu, 14 Sep 2017 14:20:01 -0400Maisie O’Brien | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-american-sign-language-and-deaf-culture-club-promotes-asl-classes-0914<p>On Aug. 15, 25 MIT students and staff members were engaged in a lively lecture and discussion in Building 66 — but the room was completely silent. The teacher, Carol Zurek, wrote a word on the board and gestured to the class to repeat her movements.</p>
<p>The students practiced the motion, incorporating them&nbsp;into their existing American Sign Language (ASL) vocabulary.</p>
<p>The class was organized by the <a href="http://asl.mit.edu/" target="_blank">American Sign Language and Deaf Culture Club at MIT</a> and offered free to members of the MIT community. This fall, the club is hosting non-credit, level one&nbsp;and level two&nbsp;courses, supported by the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund" target="_blank">MindHandHeart Innovation Fund</a> and <a href="http://odge.mit.edu/community/gslg/" target="_blank">Graduate Student Life Grants</a>.</p>
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<p>The club was officially formed in 2016, though MIT has offered ASL classes organized by the&nbsp;group of students and staff since 2014, with support from the <a href="https://www.media.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Media Lab</a>. The interest level in the courses has been impressive, with nearly 80 people signing up for classes that are capped at 25 students.</p>
<p>“I think the interest speaks to the MIT community wanting to be open and inclusive,” said Barbara Johnson, a staff member in MIT Information Systems&nbsp;and Technology (IS&amp;T) who spearheaded the effort to bring ASL classes to MIT and is deaf.&nbsp;“The goals of the club are to spread awareness of Deaf culture and ASL as a language, and to get people to see deafness as another component of diversity.”</p>
<p>The classes are structured in six week and eight week&nbsp;sessions and meet for approximately 90 minutes. Students use a book to guide them through learning vocabulary and basic conversational skills, and the instructor prompts students to engage in structured role playing.</p>
<p>“The keystone of the class is that voices are off,” Johnson says. “This can be quite a jolt for some people — figuring out how to communicate using a visual language.”</p>
<p>ASL Club president Gustavo Goretkin, a&nbsp;PhD student at the <a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory</a>,&nbsp;says this is one of the most rewarding aspects of the class. “You might be conversing with a student and may even consider them a friend, but you’ll go months without hearing their voice,” he says. “It’s a very special and unique layer of connection to have with a person.”</p>
<p>Kristy Johnson, a PhD student in the Media Lab and a founding officer in the club, also appreciates the community she has found through the ASL Club.</p>
<p>“I have two kids and live off campus,” she explains. “So it’s been great for me to have an outlet that promotes so much engagement and connection. You have to really pay attention when you’re learning ASL. You have to look the other person in the eyes and focus on what they’re saying. You can’t be distracted or on your phone.”</p>
<p>Johnson was inspired to sign up for the classes in order to better communicate with her son and because of her general interest in languages.</p>
<p>“I use sign language extensively with my son, who has autism as well as many other special needs," she says. "He responds much more consistently to signing than he ever does to spoken speech. I also use it with my daughter, who just turned one.”</p>
<p>Learning ASL has also influenced Johnson's&nbsp;research at the Media Lab.</p>
<p>“It’s valuable to be able to communicate with lots of different people and types of learners,” she says. “The more you become aware of these different abilities, both through people like my son and through members of the Deaf community, the more we can invent for and with that community. If MIT wants to stay at the forefront of innovation, we have to be innovating for everybody.”</p>
<p>In addition to the ASL classes, the club plans to host social events in the fall, including lunchtime practice sessions and field trips. Looking to the future, the group hopes that ASL will become a more permanent fixture on campus and that MIT will offer for-credit courses.</p>
<p>To get a glimpse of the ASL Club in action, check out their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7twUH7FpUnI">video</a> that was awarded first place in the MindHandHeart <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk3_pReAotW_19Xn-iGw6nJsNVXuodq44">“Heart at MIT”</a> video contest. To learn more and register for classes, visit the <a href="http://asl.mit.edu/">ASL Club website</a>.</p>
Members of the American Sign Language and Deaf Culture Club practice signs in a recent class.Photo: Maisie O'Brien/MindHandHeart InitiativeMindHandHeart, Classes and programs, Clubs and activities, Community, Student life, LanguageMaryann Gong named 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 honoreehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/maryann-gong-named-2017-ncaa-woman-year-top-30-honoree-0907
Gong becomes third MIT student-athlete to be named to Top 30.Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:25:01 -0400Ken Johnson Jr. | DAPERhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/maryann-gong-named-2017-ncaa-woman-year-top-30-honoree-0907<p>Former MIT All-American cross country/track standout Maryann Gong, from Livermore, California, has been named as a Top 30 honoree for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Gong is just the third student-athlete in MIT history to be honored as a Top 30 selection, joining Margaret Guo '16<strong> </strong>(swimming and diving) and Lisa K. Arel '92<strong> </strong>(gymnastics). Guo captured the 2016 Woman of the Year award and became the first MIT student-athlete to earn the honor.</p>
<p>This year, the NCAA received a program-record 543 school nominees, which were then trimmed to 145 female student-athletes that were nominated by conferences and an independent selection committee. Gong was one of 53 Division III student-athletes to advance to that stage, and she is now among the final 10 from Division III.</p>
<p>“It’s kind of hard to believe because there are so many people, so to be one of the top 30 is really an honor and I’m really grateful about it,” Gong says. “It’s definitely a great way to end my undergraduate career at MIT.”</p>
<p>Named as the CoSIDA Division III National Academic All-America of the Year for a second straight season, Gong is a 15-time All-American and one of the most decorated female student-athletes in MIT history. In 2016-17, she was a three-time indoor track and field All-American as she anchored the distance medley relay team that finished as the national runner-up. Posting a perfect 5.0 GPA as an undergraduate at MIT, she is currently pursuing her master’s degree at MIT in engineering with a concentration in artificial intelligence. A former NCAA champion in the 3,000 meters, Gong was the recipient of the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Elite 90 award.</p>
<p>“The Top 30 honorees are remarkable representatives of the thousands of women competing in college sports each year,” says Sarah Hebberd, chair of the Woman of the Year selection committee and director of compliance at Georgia. “They have seized every opportunity available to them on the field of play, in the classroom and in the community, and we are proud to recognize them for their outstanding achievements.”</p>
<p>The selection committee will name nine finalists, with three from each division, in late September. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2017 Woman of the Year. That ceremony will take place on Oct. 23 at a ceremony in Indianapolis.</p>
<p>For the latest on MIT Athletics, follow the Engineers via social media on <a href="https://twitter.com/MITengineers">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MITengineers">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mitathletics/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBgTXPlznzOjVrvqIDJdXzw">YouTube</a>.</p>
Former cross country/track and field standout Maryann GongPhoto: DAPERAwards, honors and fellowships, Students, Graduate, postdoctoral, Alumni/ae, Athletics, Sports and fitness, Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation (DAPER), Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (eecs), School of Engineering, Student lifeMeasuring depths, scaling heightshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-grad-student-leigh-ann-kesler-climbing-measuring-fusion-reactors-0831
When not climbing mountains, nuclear science and engineering PhD candidate Leigh Ann Kesler tracks erosion inside fusion reactor containment chambers.Thu, 31 Aug 2017 17:10:01 -0400Paul Rivenberg | Plasma Science and Fusion Centerhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-grad-student-leigh-ann-kesler-climbing-measuring-fusion-reactors-0831<p>Graduate student Leigh Ann Kesler is pursuing her two great interests: fusion science and rock climbing. One day she finds herself scrambling up bare rock faces to view grand vistas of mountains and valleys carved by glaciers,&nbsp;the next she is in the laboratory, exploring minute changes in the depth of materials being eroded by fusion forces.</p>
<p>Kesler studies at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), and&nbsp;dates her interest in fusion back to an&nbsp;11th-grade persuasive writing assignment. Inspired in part by her father’s interest in the potential of nuclear energy, she decided to investigate fusion. Searching for the topic at&nbsp;the library in her Fisher, Illinois, high school, she found just one 1970s-vintage book on the topic, but its description of a magnetic fusion device called a tokamak was compelling enough to hook her for good.</p>
<p>As an undergrad at the University of Illinois, Kesler studied nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering, learning the basics about how plasmas affect materials from one of her mentors, Professor&nbsp;David Ruzic. Working in his laboratory on projects related to semiconductor manufacturing as well as fusion, she gained a reputation for expertise with plasma diagnostics. Graduate students several years her senior soon began to seek her help with their projects.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if I was an expert,” she says, laughing. “But I had several advantages.&nbsp;I had small hands. I could reach inside of the bottom of the chamber [of the experiment].&nbsp;I’d been there long enough that they knew I wasn’t going to break things.”</p>
<p><strong>Understanding fusion devices</strong></p>
<p>Now at MIT, she is continuing her research in materials science and fusion research under the guidance of Professor Dennis Whyte, head of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department and director of the PSFC, and Assistant Professor&nbsp;Zach Hartwig. As she did&nbsp;in Illinois, she works in a lab that utilizes small-scale plasma devices for ex situ observation of plasma surface interactions. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Her main focus is erosion of materials inside fusion devices, where strong magnetic fields keep the hot plasma fuel confined and away from the walls of the vacuum chamber where fusion reactions occur. But the plasma can still affect the walls, resulting in surface erosion and other changes.</p>
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<p>“It’s very difficult to determine exactly how a particular kind of plasma discharge affects the interior material of the machine,” Kesler says. "We can’t be sure of the amount of erosion occurring at any particular moment. Erosion affects not only the wall materials, but also the plasma itself, which can become contaminated by the eroded materials. If you are eroding or even melting the surfaces you will eventually destroy the divertor, which is designed to remove impurities from the plasma.”</p>
<p>She works mainly on a 2 megavolt&nbsp;electrostatic accelerator called DANTE in the Vault Laboratory for Nuclear Science, which is part of the Center for Science and Technology with Accelerators and Radiation (CSTAR). The lab is&nbsp;a shielded, underground facility that allows her to work safely with a deuterium ion beam. She also uses CSTAR's&nbsp;Cambridge Laboratory for Accelerator Surface Science, giving&nbsp;her the versatility of working with&nbsp;two ion sources.</p>
<p>Kesler is searching for a way to measure, on a shot-by-shot basis, what changes are happening on the interior surface of the tokamak in order&nbsp;to gain a better understanding of how different plasma conditions affect surfaces. To this end, she will use the accelerator to create “depth markers” to help measure changes in the metallic surfaces. She is working with tungsten, a metal that will likely be used for the divertors of future tokamaks.</p>
<p>“Accelerators can be used to implant stuff into the surface of a material," she says. A layer of a material, like boron, put close to the surface can be used as a reference point.</p>
<p>"If the location of this layer changes after interacting with the plasma that means the amount of tungsten on the surface has changed," she says. "Either something has been added or something has been taken away.”</p>
<p>Kesler is still fine-tuning what that reference point will be, the best&nbsp;material to use, how to create the depth marker, and how to use the accelerators to see how the plasma has affected the surface. Her technique should be applicable to any material&nbsp;and will be relevant to tokamaks around the world, allowing researchers to diagnose the effect of each plasma shot as it happens.</p>
<p><strong>“Addicted to hiking”</strong></p>
<p>While the lab keeps her busy, Kesler has been able to indulge her love of hiking and rock climbing, not only in the mountains of New England, but in places as far away as Machu Picchu, the Faroe Islands, and Mount Vesuvius. She started rock climbing during a summer internship in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where after work she would explore the area crags with friends.</p>
<p>“It turned into the best summer of my life, and I was addicted to hiking and climbing after that.”</p>
<p>At MIT she got involved with more aspects of the sport when she started going on trips with the MIT Outing Club (MITOC). Soon she was a hiking and climbing leader, and is currently on the board of directors.</p>
<p>“MITOC has been an amazing part of my grad school experience, allowing me to make friends with shared interests and to let me escape the confines of the city on the weekends. As a country girl, I get sick of the city, so New Hampshire has been my second home while I'm here.”</p>
<p>On a mountain she can study the surface of a rock that will provide her next foothold instead of the interior surface of a tokamak. She can breathe the thin air of high altitudes before returning to her underground laboratory. She was excited about her recent hike with five friends from MITOC to Gannett Peak, Wyoming’s highest point, where she was able to watch the total eclipse on Aug. 21.</p>
<p>“We hiked for two days to high camp, took one day to summit, then one day to retreat. I had bruised my heel six weeks earlier in a climbing accident, so I was out of shape, but the trip was still amazing. Viewing the totality of the eclipse was mind-blowing. The 360-degree sunset/sunrise and the reality of the sun disappearing from view was something I cannot describe. It is an experience of a lifetime.”</p>
<p>Now at the beginning of her sixth year, Kesler is still researching and writing, but starting to consider her options after graduation. “An international postdoctoral position in materials development would be great. But I’m not so much interested in where I go as in doing interesting work,” she says.</p>
<p>Ideally that work will be situated not far from a mountain, she says.&nbsp;“There are always more rocks to climb.”</p>
Graduate student Leigh Ann Kesler researches the effects of hot plasma on the interiors of fusion devices using a 2 megavolt electrostatic accelerator called DANTE in the Vault Laboratory for Nuclear Science at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center.Photo: Paul Rivenberg/PSFCSchool of Engineering, Alternative energy, Energy, Fusion, Nuclear power and reactors, Nuclear science and engineering, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Renewable energy, Research, Graduate, postdoctoral, Clubs and activities, Student lifeCelebrating Walker Memorial’s 100th yearhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-celebrates-walker-memorial-student-center-100th-year-0829
Designed as MIT’s first student center, the campus landmark initially housed World War I military personnel. Tue, 29 Aug 2017 17:10:01 -0400Robert Dimmick | MIT Alumni Associationhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-celebrates-walker-memorial-student-center-100th-year-0829<p>Labor Day Weekend of 1917 marked the opening of MIT’s new student center, Walker Memorial — although not for its intended purpose. As part of the Institute’s contribution to the World War I war effort, 400 naval aviation students moved into the new building, taking over the gymnasium and balconies of the big hall for dormitory space, as well as the rooms on the second and third floors that had been built for student and faculty recreational use.</p>
<p>The building’s namesake, former MIT President Francis Amasa Walker, is still the only MIT president to have served as a military general, so he likely would have approved. As <em>The Tech</em> of the day reported: “the building erected in memory of him will be devoted to military purposes before becoming what it is destined to be, the social center of Technology.”</p>
<p>A hub for campus activities was considered the greatest tribute to President Walker, who was beloved by both students and alumni for his efforts to improve student life on MIT’s cramped Boston campus. But making that ideal student center a reality took two decades.</p>
<p>When Walker died in 1897, the Alumni Association formed a committee to plan and fund the project, and, by 1902, the funds and land had been set aside. The project was postponed, though,&nbsp;when MIT announced plans to relocate from Boston. It wasn't until the Institute’s move to Cambridge 14 years later&nbsp;that construction on Walker Memorial finally became possible.</p>
<p>It became a landmark for MIT students began even before it was finished. On Feb.&nbsp;9, 1917, the Class of 1918 gathered for “the first Class Photograph ever taken on the steps of Walker Memorial ... this spot will probably be chosen as a place to take all class pictures in the future,” the 1918 edition of&nbsp;<em>Technique</em> reported. The tradition holds generations&nbsp;later: Walker's steps are still used for alumni group portraits, most notably that of the 50th reunion class before they march&nbsp;in the Commencement procession as official Cardinal and Gray Society members in their distinctive red jackets.</p>
<p>After the Army and Navy aviation cadets moved out in January of 1919, the building was formally inaugurated as a student center. Henry A. Morss, Class of 1893 and&nbsp;then president of the Alumni Association, formally presented Walker Memorial to MIT “for the students that the student body would thereby be united and the Technology spirit be fostered.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>For many of those who have passed through Walker Memorial over the past 100 years, the most enduring images remain the <a href="https://listart.mit.edu/public-art-map/walker-memorial-mural" target="_blank">murals</a> in Morss Hall, which were&nbsp;painted by Edwin Howland Blashfield of the&nbsp;Class of 1869. Created and installed between 1923 and 1930, their allegories of alma mater receiving homage from scientific and academic disciplines have watched over&nbsp;countless MIT community functions, from dining hall breakfasts to the Assembly Ball and more.</p>
<p>For most MIT alumni and students, Walker Memorial holds indelible memories. A&nbsp;century after its completion, the tribute to President Walker&nbsp;has&nbsp;been realized in the best possible way —&nbsp;with the building continuing to serve as a community gathering place.</p>
The Tech announced Walker Memorial’s opening in 1917.Image: MIT ArchivesCampus buildings and architecture, Community, Facilities, History of MIT, Student lifeWater war: East campus versus westhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/water-war-east-campus-versus-west-0824
Representing their dorms on campus, students rush to Killian Court to lob water balloons at their friends in an annual MIT tradition. Thu, 24 Aug 2017 11:20:00 -0400Nicole Morell | MIT Alumni Associationhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/water-war-east-campus-versus-west-0824<p>The idiom “wet behind the ears” may be a good way to describe new MIT students because, thanks to several MIT traditions, students spend their first few days on campus getting soaked.</p>
<p>Many people know about the&nbsp;<a href="https://slice.mit.edu/2014/07/16/mit-swim-test/" target="_blank">swim test</a>&nbsp;that first-year students take during orientation, but soon after students dry out, it’s time for another wet MIT tradition — the water war. The annual water war is an official part of&nbsp;<a href="http://web.mit.edu/dormcon/REX/" target="_blank">Residential Exploration</a>&nbsp;(REX) that began at MIT in the early 2000s. The war pits east campus against west in a battle on Killian Court that combines water balloons with student ingenuity.</p>
<p>The war is a carefully orchestrated event. With the help of the&nbsp;<a href="http://web.mit.edu/dormcon/about/" target="_blank">Dormitory Council</a>, REX chairs help to coordinate the event each year. Henry Shackleton and Yanisa Techagumthorn, REX chairs from East Campus, explain that scheduling can actually the most challenging part of the war. “Finding a time for the water war can be hard; there’s a lot of events during REX. But once it’s on the schedule people start to prep,” says Techagumthorn. This prep includes filling balloons, designing catapults, building duck chariots, and creating a contraption known as Hurricane Fred — a long plastic dumpster turned water hose built by East Campus students.</p>
<p>While almost every dorm participates in the war, Shackleton and Techagumthorn say the biggest showing each year comes from East Campus, Next House, and Simmons. “But East Campus always wins,” Shackleton laughs. With serious equipment like water hoses, it’s no surprise that the war usually doesn’t last more than 10 minutes before being called — but it does include some great pageantry. “We usually give a dramatic speech to assemble to troops at the dorm,” Shackleton says. Once all dorms arrive at Killian Court, REX chairs from east and west campus meet in the middle of the court, shake hands, and announce a start to the war. Despite the intensity, the water war comes with some battlefield reunions. “You might see people you haven’t seen all summer. You say, ‘Hi,’ and throw a water balloon at them,” Techagumthorn says.</p>
<p>While the war is for current students, a small audience forms around it each year. David Bragdon ’62 caught the East Campus crew preparing for the war and was intrigued. “He saw what we were doing and followed us down to the war,” explains Techagumthorn. “I was embedded with the troops,” Bragdon says. This embed gave a him a front row seat at how the war ended earlier this year. “At the end, peace broke out with all of us chanting ‘MIT, MIT, MIT!’ It was very moving,” he says</p>
<p>While the water war is friendly combat, Techagumthorn says there are a few casualties each year — in the form of brass rats. “We get a ton of emails about people losing theirs,” she says. Despite the potential ring loss, the war has a big appeal to students new and returning. “I love the water war. It was the first time in my freshman year that I got a sense of some sort of community. It’s a great tradition that I’ve enjoyed,” Shackleton says.</p>
<p><em>This article first appeared on the <a href="https://slice.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Slice of MIT</a> blog. </em></p>
The annual water war, an official part of Residential Exploration (REX), began at MIT in the early 2000s. Photo: David BragdonStudent life, Students, 3 Questions, CommunityFeatured video: Karate is for everyonehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/featured-video-karate-is-for-everyone-0809
Shotokan karate provides MIT community members with a unique artistic outlet.Wed, 09 Aug 2017 14:45:41 -0400MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/featured-video-karate-is-for-everyone-0809<div class="cms-placeholder-content-video"></div>
<p>Vazrik Chiloyan, an instructor for the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/shotokan/www/" target="_blank">MIT Shotokan Karate Club</a>, developed a love for karate nearly a decade ago. Since then, Chiloyan, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, has earned a second-degree black belt. Shotokan karate, he says, is one of the most beautiful things he has ever studied.</p>
<p>"Karate, for me, is the most introspective art," Chiloyan says. "You have to perfect your whole being for one motion. That unification is very, very satisfying."</p>
<p>Founded in 1974 by Sensei Kazumi Tabata, the MIT Shotokan Club is a member New England Collegiate Karate Conference. The club competes with Boston University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Tufts University, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and the University of Toronto.</p>
<p>From beginners to individuals with experience in other styles, the club welcomes members from all corners of the MIT community. Right now, Chiloyan and his fellow karate enthusiasts are gearing up for a November tournament at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.</p>
<p><em>Submitted by: School of Engineering | Video by: Lillie Paquette | 1 min, 46 sec</em></p>
MIT engineering graduate student Vazrik Chiloyan (center) is an instructor for the MIT Shotokan Karate Club.Photo: Lillie Paquette/School of EngineeringClubs and activities, Community, Featured video, Student life, Mechanical engineering, School of Engineering, Japan, International initiativesDivision of Student Life introduces statement on diversity and inclusionhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/division-student-life-introduces-diversity-and-inclusion-statement-0801
Statement is intended to inform and guide staff on issues related to diversity and inclusion.Tue, 01 Aug 2017 15:00:01 -0400Isabella Dionne | Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/division-student-life-introduces-diversity-and-inclusion-statement-0801<p>The MIT Division of Student Life (DSL) Staff Engagement Advisory Board (SEAboard) has introduced a statement intended to inform and guide staff on issues related to diversity and inclusion. The statement reads:</p>
<p>Our mission, as a division that is here for students, is to attract, hire, and retain talented staff members who represent the diversity of the MIT student body. We strive to provide all DSL staff members with the skills, tools, and support to create and maintain a respectful and responsive environment for living, teaching, and learning. We achieve this by:</p>
<ul>
<li>creating a climate of inclusion that reflects our division’s values and promotes an open exchange of ideas where each voice is heard;</li>
<li>advancing DSL’s policies, practices, and programming for diversity, inclusion, and equity;</li>
<li>promoting DSL staff equality of access, opportunity, representation, and participation within the division and beyond; and</li>
<li>enhancing the awareness, knowledge, and skills of MIT community members through our work across campus.</li>
</ul>
<p>The statement was inspired by <a href="http://recommendations.mit.edu/" target="_blank">recommendations made in 2015</a> by MIT’s Black Students Union on how to make MIT more diverse and inclusive. Suzy Nelson, vice president and dean for student life, suggested that SEABoard’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee consider how the recommendations could be applied to DSL. “The recommendations provide us with a roadmap for how we can improve our campus and how we can make our campus more welcoming and affirming for all,” Nelson said. “Because DSL has a strong hand in shaping the student experience, we need to be mindful of these recommendations and work to operationalize them.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>Twelve volunteers to the Diversity and Inclusion Committee came from across DSL’s many disciplines&nbsp;and met in November 2016 with the goals of making the division a better place to work, and better for minority students. “When we came together for our first meeting, we talked about why folks were interested,” explained Libby Mahaffy, assistant director for conflict management and co-chair of the committee. “A lot of them said, ‘I wanted to do something that matters; that has impact.’” The committee was also co-chaired by Gerardo Garcia-Rios, assistant dean and interim co-director of student support services, and Lauren Haynie, former special assistant to the athletic director (who left MIT for a new position in June).</p>
<p>Before taking specific steps, the committee decided first to develop a statement on diversity and inclusion in DSL that would frame future discussions and work. They sought guidance and feedback on elements of a statement from students, staff, and faculty through a variety of channels, including email, webforms, and word of mouth. “It was a very robust feedback process,” said Mahaffy. “It really felt great that folks were thinking about it and talking about it.”</p>
<p>While the statement was written for DSL, the committee believes there will be community-wide impact. “When folks are happier at work, they’re happier with the students that they work with,” said Mahaffy. “It makes a difference for you to feel like you belong somewhere, because then you’ll treat others with that same kind of respect and belonging.”</p>
<p>“In a lot of ways, it’s aspirational,” added Rios. “It represents kind of what could be the best of DSL. We may not necessarily be there now, but it gives us a template for the future.”</p>
Photo: Christopher HartingStudent life, Diversity and inclusion, Staff, Community, AdministrationMaryann Gong earns second-straight Division III Academic All-America of the Year Awardhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/maryann-gong-earns-second-straight-cosida-division-iii-academic-all-america-year-award-0724
Computer science major is the first Division III student-athlete to earn the honor in back-to-back years and just the second overall in the NCAA.Mon, 24 Jul 2017 13:15:01 -0400Ken Johnson Jr. | DAPERhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/maryann-gong-earns-second-straight-cosida-division-iii-academic-all-america-year-award-0724<p>MIT master's student and recent graduate <a href="http://www.mitathletics.com/sports/w-xc/2016-17/bios/gong_maryann_96ne">Maryann Gong</a> '17, a student-athlete on the&nbsp;MIT Women's Cross Country and MIT Women's Track and Field teams, has earned the 2016-17 CoSIDA Division III Academic All-America of the Year Award, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). This is the second consecutive year that Gong has been named the NCAA Division III's top Academic All-America scholar-athlete across all sports. With the award, she is the first Division III student-athlete to earn the honor in back-to-back years and just the second overall among all divisions.</p>
<p>"It really means a lot to me to receive this award," Gong says. "These past four years have been a roller coaster, and have taught me what it really means to be a student-athlete. None of this would have been possible without Coach [Halston] Taylor, my teammates, and DAPER [the MIT Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation] and all the support and encouragement I've received. It inspires me to keep trying my best and make the MIT community proud!"<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Gong, who graduated from MIT this spring with a 4.00 GPA (5.00 under MIT's weighted grading system) as an electrical engineering and computer science major, is a 15-time NCAA Division III All-American in cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. A three-time CoSIDA Division III Academic All-America women's track &amp; field/cross country First Team selection, Gong received the NCAA Elite 90 Award at the 2017 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championship. A nominee for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Award from MIT, Gong was named an All-American in the indoor distance medley relay (DMR), mile, and 3,000-meter events in 2017. The MIT Engineers finished as national runner-up in the DMR behind a strong closing finish from Gong.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
"Maryann has been the greatest success story in the brief story of our women's track and field/cross country program," says MIT Track and Field and Cross Country Head Coach Halston Taylor. "She epitomizes what Division III is about. She does not ever sacrifice her academic success for her pursuit of athletic excellence. Although she has earned 15 All-America awards, including an individual national title, she has done so after taking care of her academic obligations."<br />
&nbsp;<br />
"Maryann is the model of what I want our program to be," Taylor adds. "She found a way to do it all and put everything in the right perspective. I am blessed to have had her compete for us for four years at MIT. She has moved up almost single handedly to national prominence, particularly in indoor track and field. She will not be replaced and will always be missed."&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Gong, who is pursuing her master's degree from MIT in engineering concentrating on artificial intelligence, was named the 2014 USTFCCCAA National Track Athlete of the Year and captured the 2015 NCAA Division III 3,000-meter indoor national championship. The team captain in both cross country and track and field won the 2017 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference outdoor 1,500-meter title was a three-time All-New England performer in 2016-17 and was named to the academic all-conference team six times in her career. The Livermore, California, native is the two-time winner of the Malcolm G. Kispert Award (2015 and 2017) as the top MIT female scholar-athlete.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
"We are very proud of Maryann for being named as the Division III Academic All-America of the Year for the second straight year," says MIT Director of Athletics Julie Soriero. "This is an amazing accomplishment by an incredible young woman and something that shows how hard she worked both as a student and an athlete during her four years at MIT. Maryann is a great representative of the type of student-athlete that we have here at MIT and I am very happy that she has been recognized for a second time with this tremendous honor."<br />
&nbsp;<br />
During her time at MIT, Gong has participated in several internships. She was a Double-Click Bid Management Front End Intern at Google, a Google Speech Team Data Infrastructure Intern, and a software engineer intern at A4 Data Technology. Gong has also served as the treasurer for Engineers Without Borders, fundraising for bridge-building programs in Malawi, and has served as a researcher for Data-Driven Inference Group at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.</p>
<p>The Division III Academic All-America program is financially supported by the NCAA Division III national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2016-17 Division II Academic All-America teams program. This is the sixth year that CoSIDA has named Division III Academic All-America teams.</p>
Maryann Gong '17 is the first Division III student-athlete to capture consecutive CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year honors.Photo: DAPERAwards, honors and fellowships, Students, Graduate, postdoctoral, Alumni/ae, Athletics, Sports and fitness, Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation (DAPER), Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (eecs), Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), School of Engineering, Student lifeSpreading kindness far and widehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/spreading-kindness-far-and-wide-bettina-arkhurst-rak-week-0719
Senior Bettina Arkhurst, founder of Random Acts of Kindness Week, is making a better world at MIT.Wed, 19 Jul 2017 17:45:01 -0400Maisie O’Brien | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/spreading-kindness-far-and-wide-bettina-arkhurst-rak-week-0719<p>Bettina Arkhurst comes from a large, tight-knit family. Her relatives hail from across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and Ghana. They fly to celebrate birthdays, graduations, and family reunions, and support one another during difficult times.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Coming to MIT, Arkhurst quickly settled in and made friends, but she worried about her classmates who lacked the strong social ties she had always known and valued. “I felt there was a need for more empathy and connection on campus,” she said. “If someone didn’t find a friend group or feel a sense of belonging in their classes, then their college experience could be isolating, and MIT is not a place to go through alone.”</p>
<p>During her sophomore year, Arkhurst joined the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/">MindHandHeart</a> Initiative as a co-chair in the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/about-mindhandheart/working-groups/connectedness">Connectedness Working Group</a>, and worked alongside fellow students, faculty, and staff members on projects to make MIT a healthier, more welcoming place.&nbsp;</p>
<p>“It was serendipitous how MindHandHeart was just beginning and I had been thinking of starting a program to positively impact our campus culture,” she said. “The goals of MindHandHeart aligned with my belief that peoples’ well-being needs to be a top priority in our academic, residential, and social environments.”</p>
<p>In the second semester of her sophomore year, Arkhurst and her friend and classmate Cory Johnson applied for and were awarded funds to pilot <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/sophomores-champion-random-acts-of-kindness-week-0317">Random Act of Kindness (RAK) Week</a> through the MindHandHeart <a href="https://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund">Innovation Fund</a>. Their idea was to encourage small, spontaneous acts of generosity and meaningful moments of connection through loosely planned events and “RAK hacks.”</p>
<p>The first RAK Week began with RAK-themed goodie bags, open houses offering treats, and lots of flowers, bubbles, free hugs, and giveaways. Supported by the MindHandHeart volunteer coalition, along with members of the <a href="http://dphie.scripts.mit.edu/website/">Delta Phi Epsilon</a><a href="http://dphie.scripts.mit.edu/website/"> Sorority</a> and <a href="http://nudelta.mit.edu/">Nu Delta Fraternity</a>, the event spread across campus. “I knew RAK Week had really taken off when a classmate gave me a flower and began explaining ‘Random Acts of Kindness Week’ to me,” said Arkhurst.</p>
<p>This year’s RAK Week was supported by the Connectedness Working Group and involved the participation of even more academic departments and centers. The <a href="http://chemistry.mit.edu/random-acts-kindness-week-march-6-10-2017">Department of Chemistry</a>, for example, held a series of RAK events, as did MIT Libraries and the Women and Gender Studies Program. Students enjoyed free 10-minute chair massages, care packages, and homemade pastries.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Arkhurst took the lead in coordinating RAK Week volunteers and distributing supplies, like lumber, cake mix, and craft materials. And she did all of this while balancing a demanding mechanical engineering course load, a teaching assistant position in a Physics I class, and roles with <a href="http://web.mit.edu/21m401/www/">MIT’s gospel choir</a>, <a href="http://esg.mit.edu/">Experimental Study Group</a>, and the <a href="http://www.studentsonthecase.com/">CASE (Class Awareness, Support and Equality)</a> student group.</p>
<p>Both RAK Weeks culminated in an open mic night in the Media Lab. “This year’s event was called ‘Let’s Talk About It’ and was run by Delta Phi Epsilon,” Arkhurst explains. “It was a forum for students to come on stage and share whatever was on their minds or in their hearts. Some people gave advice, others shared challenges, or performed spoken word. It was a chance to reflect, feel supported, and realize that everyone you pass in the halls has a story and struggles, and that you’re not alone.”</p>
<p>Arkhurst has been recognized for her role in founding and leading RAK Week, and has been granted a number of awards, including the <a href="http://awards.mit.edu/node/100">Bridge Builder Award</a>, <a href="http://web.mit.edu/womensleague/newsletter/mwl-inleague-feb-mar-2017.pdf">Laya Wiesner Award</a>, and the<a href="http://awards.mit.edu/institute-awards/2015-2016-awards/office-multicultural-programs"> Emerging Leader Award</a>.</p>
<p>Arkhurst and the MindHandHeart initiative plan to hold RAK Week again next year and expect it to reach even more departments and centers. Reflecting on her leadership roles within MindHandHeart and RAK Week, Arkhurst, now a rising senior, says: “It’s been really rewarding seeing people from different parts of the MIT community coming together to support mental health. If there wasn’t for MindHandHeart, I don’t think there would be much of an outlet for people who want to apply their creativity to support well-being on campus.”</p>
<p>This summer, Arkhurst is applying her leadership and organizational skills working as a project management intern at IBM in North Carolina. “I’m enjoying it a lot,” says Arkhurst. “I’m working within IBM’s real estate department to create tools that streamline internal processes and push projects forward. I’ve also had the opportunity to use quite a bit of computer science, which has been rewarding, though I’m definitely a mechanical engineer at heart.”</p>
<p>Heading into her senior year, Arkhurst is uncertain of where her degree is taking her, but — unsurprisingly and admirably — she plans to “create and innovate with the goal of helping other people.”&nbsp;</p>
Bettina Arkhurst, MIT senior and RAK Week founder Photo: Maisie O'BrienCommunity, Students, Student life, MindHandHeart, Mental health, ProfileReverend Kirstin Boswell-Ford to be newest chaplainhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-welcomes-reverend-kirstin-boswell-ford-institute-chaplain-0705
Boswell-Ford will be only the second chaplain to the Institute in MIT’s history, succeeding Robert Randolph.Wed, 05 Jul 2017 11:40:01 -0400Isabella Dionne | Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-welcomes-reverend-kirstin-boswell-ford-institute-chaplain-0705<p>MIT will welcome the Reverend Kirstin Boswell-Ford this month as the new chaplain to the Institute and director of religious life. She will succeed Robert Randolph, a member of the MIT community since 1979 who became the first chaplain to the Institute in 2007.</p>
<p>Boswell-Ford comes to MIT from Brown University, where she served as associate university chaplain to the Protestant community. Prior to her service at Brown, Boswell-Ford worked both at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and at the International Association of Black Religions and Spiritualities in Chicago. Speaking about working in a university setting, she says the growth and development of individuals is what&nbsp;makes her service so worthwhile.</p>
<p>“You’re looking at students that are going to be our next world leaders,” Boswell-Ford&nbsp;says.&nbsp;“And I love seeing them as they’re just embarking on their careers.”</p>
<p>“I am delighted that Kirstin is taking on this important role in our community,” says Suzy Nelson, vice president and dean for student life. “As a member of the Division of Student Life’s senior staff, she will be an important voice in conversations about community support, diversity, and inclusion, and student wellbeing.”</p>
<p>Senior Associate Dean of Student Support and Wellbeing David Randall, who chaired the search for the new chaplain to the Institute, says the committee “wanted someone who, most importantly, connected with students — someone who could build on the foundation that was set by Bob Randolph, but also create a new vision for the office.”</p>
<p>Boswell-Ford matched the committee’s priorities perfectly. During her time at Brown, she worked closely with a number of smaller groups within the Protestant community, as well as with that university's many&nbsp;interfaith organizations.</p>
<p>“Kirstin has a deep appreciation for diversity and inclusion, and we needed a chaplain who could speak to the whole MIT community,” Randall says. “Kirstin really had a commitment to interfaith work that I think was quite unique.”</p>
<p>While Boswell-Ford is new to MIT, she's no stranger to Cambridge. She has also served as an associate pastor at Union Baptist Church in Central Square, where she worked closely with the congregation’s Women’s Fellowship and provided pastoral care and counseling for community members. She experienced her first interactions with the MIT community when she took some courses at the Institute while studying at Wellesley College (she later transferred&nbsp;to the University of Virginia, where she completed her degree).</p>
<p>“I've always been very impressed with the school’s mission and dedication to the sciences and engineering and technology,” she says. “MIT really is a place where there's a lot of support for students, and that was really impressive to me.”</p>
<p>Given that Boswell-Ford will be only the second chaplain to the Institute in MIT’s history after Randolph, who retired last August, she and the MIT community are looking forward to the strides she can make in the position.</p>
<p>“Bob Randolph really worked hard at establishing the chaplaincy, and I think Kirstin can really take it to the next level,” Randall says. “There are folks in many offices who are very interested in partnering with the chaplaincy, and in making sure that we have a tight web of support for our students. I think she’s going to really have a lot of flexibility in creating her vision for the office, and she’s going to have a lot of eager partners as we think about how to all work together.”</p>
<p>Boswell-Ford says she's “very excited for the challenge.”</p>
<p>“I think that there’s a lot of room for putting my mark on the growth and the implementation of what religious life looks like at MIT, so that’s very exciting to me,” she says.</p>
Kirsten Boswell-Ford comes to MIT from Brown University, where she served as associate university chaplain to the Protestant community. Photo courtesy of Brown University Media Relations.Community, Diversity and inclusion, Religion, Student life, StaffWest Garage scheduled to close September 2017 http://news.mit.edu/2017/west-garage-close-september-2017-undergraduate-residence-0629
Closing will make way for undergraduate residence; permit holders are being assigned to new parking areas on campus.Thu, 29 Jun 2017 11:30:00 -0400Kristin Lund | MIT Facilitieshttp://news.mit.edu/2017/west-garage-close-september-2017-undergraduate-residence-0629<p>On Sept. 15, 2017, the West Garage (W45), located on Vassar Street across from the Johnson Athletic Center and Steinbrenner Stadium, is scheduled to close in preparation for the construction of a new undergraduate residence hall on the site. The garage is expected to remain available on a limited basis through mid-November for special events and athletic events. In late fall and early winter, the construction project team will conduct exploratory work and will prepare the structure for demolition, which is slated to take place in early 2018.</p>
<p>To accommodate MIT permit holders who currently use the roughly 370 parking spaces in the West Garage, the Parking and Transportation Office has developed a solution based on assigning permit holders to other parking areas on campus and incorporating a new Attendant Assist parking program at Stata Garage.</p>
<p><strong>Permit renewal process opens June 30</strong></p>
<p>On June 30, the parking permit renewal process will open for the 2017-2018 year. Permit holders who were assigned to the West Garage for the previous year will now be assigned to a new parking area. These parking areas will include Northwest, Northeast (Stata), Riverside, and North. When individuals log into the parking site through Atlas to renew their permits, the new assignments will already be entered into the system.</p>
<p>“The Parking and Transportation team has reviewed parking assignments carefully,” says Tom Giannino, operations manager for the Parking and Transportation Office. “For each individual, we assessed the proximity from parking area to office with the goal of minimizing walking distances as much as possible.”</p>
<p>Currently, West Garage is used frequently for athletic events and special events parking, and the garage will remain available for these uses through mid-November. Starting at the end of November, the Albany Garage will become the primary parking facility for athletic events and special events, supplemented by Northwest area lots.</p>
<p><strong>Launching the Attendant Assist program at Stata Garage</strong></p>
<p>With the goal of keeping parkers closer to their offices, the team is planning to increase the availability of parking in Stata Garage by introducing the Attendant Assist program. This program is being implemented at Stata to allow more parkers access to a centrally located garage.</p>
<p>Once the regular parking spaces in Stata are all full, parkers — with assistance from a customer service representative (CSR) and parking attendants — will be directed to park in aisle spaces and will leave their keys with the attendants. Keys will be stored in a locked box at each aisle, and attendants will move cars as needed to assist parkers moving in and out of spaces. The process will be overseen by an on-site supervisor.</p>
<p>During the recent renovation of Building E70 at 1 Broadway, the Attendant Assist program was employed successfully to manage parking spaces in the E70 garage and keep the garage available to parkers during construction. The program at Stata is expected to benefit from the experience of the team managing this solution.</p>
<p><strong>Evolving commuter options for an evolving campus</strong></p>
<p>As part of the Kendall Square project, a new underground parking garage is scheduled to open in 2020, adding 500 parking spaces back into the inventory. In the meantime, as MIT moves forward with enhancements to the campus to meet research and residential needs, the Parking and Transportation Office and Office of Campus Planning will continue to seek more options for members of the community as they navigate to and from the campus.</p>
<p>“Our goal is to ease the burden on our parkers as much as possible,” says John DiFava, director of campus services and chief of police at MIT. “We’re implementing a solution that has met with success elsewhere, and we will adapt the program once we observe how it is working for our community.”</p>
<p>This past year, the Parking and Transportation Office, in partnership with the MIT Office of Sustainability and the MIT Transit Lab, launched the Access MIT program, a suite of enhanced commuter benefits designed to encourage sustainable transportation practices. Access MIT makes it easier for MIT community members to seek lower-carbon transportation options, such as commuting by bike or via public transportation instead of by car, supporting MIT’s goal of reducing parking demand on campus 10 percent by 2018. The program provides eligible employees with benefits such as free MBTA subway and local bus passes, commuter rail subsidies, and subsidies for parking at MBTA stations. To date, Access MIT has succeeded in reducing parking demand on campus by almost 5 percent.</p>
<p>MIT individuals with questions about the parking program may contact the Parking and Transportation Office at <a href="mailto:mitparking@mit.edu?subject=West%20Garage%20closure">mitparking@mit.edu</a> or 617-258-6510.</p>
The West Garage, located on Vassar Street across from the Steinbrenner Stadium, will close this fall and is scheduled for demolition to make way for a new undergraduate residence. Photo: AboveSummit with Christopher HartingStudent life, Residential life, Campus buildings and architecture, Cambridge, Boston and region, Facilities, Community, TransportationUncovering art under MIThttp://news.mit.edu/2017/collaborative-student-borderline-mural-0626
Collaborative student mural project beautifies Institute tunnels. Sun, 25 Jun 2017 23:59:59 -0400Nicole Morell | Alumni Associationhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/collaborative-student-borderline-mural-0626<p>As you travel through the tunnels beneath MIT, you may spot a few common sights: doors to mysteriously named labs, stray office chairs, lots of students, and some tourists. But these days, there’s something new to discover in the tunnels — 200 feet of student-created art. “Walking through the tunnels I thought, ‘This is basically just a blank canvas,’” says Julia Rue, rising senior and lead on <a href="https://theborderlinetunnel.wordpress.com/">The Borderline</a> mural, a new collaborative art project in the tunnel underneath Ames Street.</p>
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<p>The Borderline mural was unveiled in May, but the idea for it came just months before, prompted by the first meeting of <a href="https://learning-modules.mit.edu/class/index.html?uuid=/course/21M/sp17/21M.601#info">21M.601 (Drawing for Designers</a>). “Our professor asked everyone why they took the course,” Rue explains. “And I was surprised by how many people said they used to do a lot of art in high school but stopped when they got to MIT.”</p>
<p>This gave Rue the idea for a large art project that could involve students across MIT. First, she received a grant from the <a href="https://arts.mit.edu/welcome/camit/">Council for the Arts at MIT</a>. Next, she turned to the MIT community to develop the idea further, holding a meeting open to all undergraduates. “I shared the idea and invited anyone who wanted to be a part of it to help — 80 people signed up that day,” she says.</p>
<p>Of the 80 volunteers, <a href="https://theborderlinetunnel.wordpress.com/meet-the-artists/">40 were selected to contribute their art</a> to the walls, while others signed on to assist in painting, a role that was essential to completing the mural in a matter of weeks. Tara Lee ’17, who worked on the project during her final semester at MIT, contributed her art. “I thought it would be a really good way to end my time at MIT — on a creative note,” she explains.</p>
<p>There was no set theme for the mural contributions because Rue wanted artists to have ownership over their creations. This resulted in a mural that is a mix of flowers, faces, and typographic art. Artist Iris Fung ’17 decided that her portion of the mural would reflect her studies at MIT. Her work displays the phrase, “You are Human,” in a variety of patterns and textures related to plant and human life. (Look for cilia and mushrooms in the piece.) “I’m a biology major, so this reflects me,” she says.</p>
<p>Though each contribution to the mural may be representative of the individual artist, Fung says there was at least one common theme. “A lot of people said, ‘Oh, I want my piece to be relaxing and soothing,” she says. “So that points to what’s going on in people’s minds from day to day.”</p>
<p>While the project allowed MIT students to tap into their artistic side, it’s not without its technological merits. Six of the paintings in the mural have an <a href="https://theborderlinetunnel.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/augmented-reality-comes-to-life/">augmented reality (AR) component</a> developed by rising junior Jessie Wang and rising sophomore Avery Lamp. Users can download an app to see animations — created by a team of 10 students — while viewing specific art pieces. “We wanted everyone to feel involved in the project, so with the app you can discover little things and people can feel like they are a part of the making of the mural themselves,” Rue says.</p>
<p>The mural is slated to stay on the walls of the tunnel until December 2017; beyond that, the future is uncertain. The Borderline team got special permission to paint the walls, but that permission expires at the end of the year. Rue hopes that the project will not only stick around, but transform in the future. “We’ve gotten a lot of support from many people. We know that we do want to continue and expand it — how, we haven’t decided on just yet,” she says.</p>
<p>The Borderline team welcomes <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSek0rBRl2-Zzz5hEm332Yk4yj9O4NK-ANHUKxAgkzdgfGLMhg/viewform">input on the mural</a>.</p>
Rising junior Jessie Wang, the AR Coordinator for The Borderline Mural Project, paints a section of the wall.
Screenshot from video by Melanie Gonick/MITCommunity, Arts, Students, Student life, Undergraduate, Council for the Arts at MITMulticultural Programs, LBGT Services moving to new offices in W31http://news.mit.edu/2017/multicultural-programs-lbgt-services-moving-to-new-offices-0606
Programs supporting students will be closer to the center of campus.Tue, 06 Jun 2017 16:00:01 -0400Division of Student Lifehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/multicultural-programs-lbgt-services-moving-to-new-offices-0606<div>
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<p>MIT's Office of Multicultural Programs and LBGT Services in the Division of Student Life (DSL) will move from their current locations in the Student Center and Walker Memorial to the duPont Athletic Center (Building W31) this summer. “Students I work with have been wanting this, and I’m glad it’s happening!” La-Tarri Canty, director of the Office of Multicultural Programs (OMP), says, channeling the enthusiasm of students, alumni, faculty, and staff over the announcement. The move to a bigger, centralized location will be complete this fall.</p>
<p>“For us, this move allows for a space above ground, in a central location, with more square footage, and with a collaborative intersectional lens on our work,” says Abigail Francis, director of LBGT Services. The Rainbow Lounge in Walker Memorial’s basement has served as a nexus of support and programming for LBGTQ students since 2002. Over that time, LBGT Services has far outgrown the lounge’s footprint. “When we have family dinners, attendees have to sit on top of one another,” Francis adds, “and it’s hard to have meaningful conversations without being able to make eye contact with all participants in the current space.”</p>
<p>Francis also knows that some students on the east side of campus will miss the current location, so she and DSL are exploring ways to ensure that programming continues for students living close to Walker Memorial. “We’re committed to maintaining a presence and serving as a resource to students on the east side of campus,” Francis says.</p>
<p>“The move benefits all of us by bringing two programs with an important mission closer to the center of campus,” says Suzy Nelson, dean for student life. “To make MIT more welcoming and inclusive, students who rely on OMP and LBGT Services for support and connection need to feel like they are in the midst of the community, not dispersed across campus or — literally — underground.”</p>
<p>The move is one development in a momentous summer for OMP and LBGT Services. Gustavo Burkett, the new senior associate dean for diversity and community involvement, will join DSL this summer to lead a group of high-profile programs including the Student Activities Office — comprising OMP, LBGT Services, and Leadership and Engagement Programs — the Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center and Ideas Global Challenge, the Hobby Shop, and the Campus Activities Complex. Additionally, Religious Life, led by new chaplain to the Institute Kirstin Boswell-Ford, will become part of the diversity and community involvement group.</p>
<p>The new LBGT Services and OMP space will be just inside the armory’s front door, in an office that was used previously by the Tech Callers program. There will be room for current staff, student visitors, and events, which is new for OMP in particular. “Because we haven’t had dedicated space, students congregate outside my office in W20, and OMP-affiliated groups need to find space for their programs,” says Canty, who has served in her role at MIT for five years. “But now, the new offices in W31 will allow us to feel more rooted to MIT, and let OMP in particular expand our programming and make better connections with each other and LBGTQ students as well.”</p>
<p>Though the new OMP and LBGT Services offices will be the new center of their programs, some affiliated programs — such as the Black Student Union in Walker Memorial and the Latino Cultural Center in Building W20 — will retain their own spaces.</p>
<p>“The intercultural space sounds like a wonderful idea and it will definitely encourage more cohesiveness amongst the various cultural groups across campus,” says senior Tiera Guinn, who has been involved with OMP. She observed that the space stands to benefit students from many more cultures and backgrounds, such as Asian and Native American students. “There should be inclusiveness in this space to appreciate every cultural group,” Guinn adds.</p>
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Bird's-eye view centers on MIT Building W31, where the new Office of Multicultural Programs and LBGT Services offices will be located.Photo: Christopher HartingAdministration, Campus services, Clubs and activities, Community, Diversity and inclusion, Student life, Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ)&quot;Mens et manus&quot; goes globalhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mens-et-manus-goes-global-0517
MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives program will send students to six continents this summer.Wed, 17 May 2017 15:15:01 -0400MISTIhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mens-et-manus-goes-global-0517<p>This year the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (<a href="http://misti.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MISTI</a>) program will send more than 1,000 students abroad. From conceptualizing electric-bicycle kits in Spain to developing assistive technology devices in Mexico, MISTI students will learn about new cultures and explore techniques for solving the world’s challenges through experiences with partners across the globe. Through their experiences abroad, students gain a firsthand understanding of the international workplace, learn to navigate scientific networks and begin to understand just how far an MIT education can take them.</p>
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<p>Here are a few things the more than 600 2017 MISTI summer interns will do:</p>
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<li>hole up in the island of Pellestrina, Italy, with MIT professors Paola Rizzoli and Andrew Whittle to study the&nbsp;Venice lagoon and the mechanical gates that will protect Venice from high waters;</li>
<li>explore ancient sites in Italy with a view to inventing new technologies and materials to protect them with Assistant Professor Admir Masic;</li>
<li>design a recumbent tricycle for athletes with disabilities using robotic technologies in Berlin;</li>
<li>team up with Israeli scientists at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat to research coral reefs;</li>
<li>work on the development of an Earth observation spacecraft in collaboration with Russia’s first private space company, Dauria Aerospace;</li>
<li>teach STEM subjects to high school students in Armenia;</li>
<li>mentor future mobile-tech entrepreneurs and spur start-up development in Algeria, Mauritius, South Africa, Peru, Brazil, Russia, and Germany; and</li>
<li>collaborate with researchers and farmers in Uganda to identify and tackle debilitating crop disease.</li>
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<p>MISTI is MIT’s pioneering international education program, based in the Center for International Studies in MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS). Founded in 1983 by SHASS faculty, the program is rooted in the "mens-et-manus" ("mind-and-hand") tradition: Faculty in SHASS first prepare MIT students for their internships with courses in the language, history, and culture of their host countries. MISTI then matches students with tailored internship, research, and teaching opportunities abroad — training them for cross-cultural careers and leadership on global teams. MISTI also facilitates international faculty collaborations and develop partnerships with leading companies, research institutes, and universities around the world.</p>
MISTI participant Andrei Ivanov '16 is pictured with the city of Grenoble, France, in the background.Photo: Lillie Paquette/School of EngineeringGlobal, Students, Student life, MISTI, SHASS, International initiativesHacking discriminationhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/hackathon-discrimination-racism-bias-0516
Student teams develop technology-based tools to address racism and bias.Tue, 16 May 2017 15:00:00 -0400Karl-Lydie Jean-Baptiste | MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/hackathon-discrimination-racism-bias-0516<p>In July 2016, feeling frustrated about violence in the news and continued social and economic roadblocks to progress for minorities, members of the Black Alumni of MIT (BAMIT) were galvanized by a <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/letter-regarding-recent-violent-tragedies-0710">letter to the MIT community</a> from President L. Rafael Reif. Responding to a recent series of tragic shootings, he asked “What are we to do?”</p>
<p>BAMIT members gathered in Washington to brainstorm a response, and out of that session emerged a plan to organize a hackathon aimed at finding technology-based solutions to address discrimination. The event, held at MIT last month, was called “Hacking Discrimination” and spearheaded by Elaine Harris ’78 and Lisa Egbuonu-Davis ’79 in partnership with the MIT Alumni Association.</p>
<p>The 11 pitches presented during the two-day hackathon covered a wide range of issues affecting communities of color, including making routine traffic stops less harmful for motorists and police officers, preventing bias in the hiring process by creating a professional profile using a secure blockchain system, flagging unconscious biases using haptic (touch-based) feedback and augmented reality, and providing advice for those who experience discrimination.</p>
<p>Hackathon winners were selected in three categories – Innovation, Impact, and Storytelling – and received gifts valued at $1,500. The teams also received advice from local experts on their topics throughout the second day of hacking.</p>
<p>The Innovation prize was awarded to Taste Voyager, a platform that enables individuals or families to host guests and foster cultural understanding over a home-cooked meal. The Impact prize went to Rahi, a smartphone app that makes shopping easier for recipients of the federally funded Women, Infant, and Children food-assistance program. The Storytelling prize was awarded to Just-Us and Health, which uses surveys to track the effects of discrimination in neighborhoods.</p>
<p>As Randal Pinkett SM ’98, MBA ’98, PhD ’02 said in his keynote speech, “Technology alone won't solve bias in the U.S.,” and the hackathon made sure to focus on technology’s human users. Under the guidance of Fahad Punjwani, an MIT graduate student in integrated design and management, the event’s mentors ensured that participants considered not just how to deploy their technologies but also the people they aimed to serve.</p>
<p>With a human-centered design process as the guideline, Punjwani encouraged participants to speak with people affected by the problem and carefully define their target audience. For some,&nbsp;including the Taste Voyager team, which began the hackathon as Immigrant Integration, this resulted in an overhaul of the project. Examining their target audience led the team to switch their focus from helping immigrants integrate to creating a way for people of different backgrounds to connect and help each other in a safe space.</p>
<p>“We hacked the topic of our topic,” said Jennifer Williams of the Lincoln Laboratory’s Human Language Technology group, who led the team. &nbsp;</p>
<p>The Rahi team, which was led by Hildreth England, assistant director of the Media Lab’s Open Agriculture Initiative, also focused on the user as it attempted to improve the national Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program by acknowledging the racial and ethnic inequalities embedded in the food system. For example, according to Feeding America, one in five African-American and Latino households is food insecure — lacking consistent and adequate access to affordable and nutritious food — compared to one in 10 Caucasian households.</p>
<p>The team created mockups for a smartphone app and focused on improving “the experience of using it before [shopping], and then in a store because that’s where all of the problems are,” explained England. In some states, WIC recipients have only a sheet of paper listing the foods available through the program.</p>
<p>During the first day of the event, speeches by Kirk Kolenbrander, vice president at MIT; J. Phillip Thompson, associate professor of urban studies and planning; and Shannon Al-Wakeel, executive director of the Muslim Justice League, reminded participants of the past and current social justice issues needing solutions. The following morning, in a keynote address, Pinkett stressed the strengths and weaknesses that come with cultural differences. "Our greatest strength is our diversity; our greatest liability is in our cultural ignorance," he said.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://giving.mit.edu/search/node/4003600">Hacking Discrimination Fund</a>, which was announced at the event, has been created to support undergraduate and graduate students addressing racism and discrimination through events such as the hackathon, development of sustainable community dialogue, contest development, and other activities that specifically address racism in the U.S. The fund’s emphasis will be placed on solutions that aim to overcome challenges to safety or economic and professional success for populations that have historically been victims of racism.</p>
<p>Alumnae organizers Egbuonu-Davis and Harris worked closely with a number of collaborators to launch the inaugural event. Contributors included Punjwani; Leo Anthony G. Celi SM ’09, a principal research scientist at the MIT Institute of Medical Engineering and Science; Trishan Panch, an MIT lecturer, primary care physician, and co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Wellframe; and Marzyeh Ghassemi and Tristan Naumann, both MIT CSAIL PhD candidates.</p>
“Hacking Discrimination,” spearheaded by Elaine Harris ’78 and Lisa Egbuonu-Davis ’79 in partnership with the MIT Alumni Association, aimed to find technology-based solutions to address discrimination.
Photo: Joe McGonegal/MIT Alumni AssociationCommunity, Diversity and inclusion, Hackathon, Students, Alumni/ae, Student life, Administration, President L. Rafael Reif, Special events and guest speakers, Computer science and technologyRaul Boquin: Working toward high-quality education for allhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/student-profile-raul-boquin-0516
MIT senior envisions opportunities for “every person of the world who wants to learn something.” Tue, 16 May 2017 00:00:00 -0400Kate Telma | MIT News correspondenthttp://news.mit.edu/2017/student-profile-raul-boquin-0516<p>Raul Boquin, now an MIT senior, remembers the assignment from his freshman year as if it were yesterday. During a leadership workshop, he was asked to write a headline for a newspaper in his imagined future. The words that came to mind resonated so strongly that they now hang on the walls of his dorm room: “Equal opportunities in education for all.”</p>
<p>“I realized that I didn’t come to MIT because it was the best engineering school, but because it was the best place to discover what I was truly passionate about,” he says. “MIT pushed me to my limits and made me able to say ‘I don’t have to be the number one math person, or the number one computer science person, to make a difference’ with the passion I ended up having, which is education.”</p>
<p>Boquin, who is majoring in mathematics with computer science, predicts his life’s work will be to “find a way to adapt education to every person of the world who wants to learn something.”</p>
<p><strong>More to education than teaching</strong></p>
<p>Boquin’s first forays into education followed a relatively traditional path. As part of the undergraduate coursework he needed for his education concentration, he spent time observing teachers in local middle and high schools.</p>
<p>“But at the end of sophomore year, I realized that there was a lot more to education than just teaching.</p>
<p>The summer before his junior year, Boquin worked as a counselor and teaching assistant at <a href="https://www.beammath.org/">Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics</a> (BEAM). “It originally started as just a math camp for students in the summer, teaching them things like topology and number theory,” Boquin says. “These were seventh grade Hispanic and black children, and they loved it. And they were amazing at it.”</p>
<p>On a campus in upstate New York, Boquin taught classes by day and talked to students about his own work in mathematics by night. He also designed parts of the BEAM curriculum and came up with fun ways of teaching the lessons. “It was inspiring because it was like I wasn’t only a teacher, but I was a mentor and a friend,” he says.</p>
<p>Back at MIT, with the guidance of Eric Klopfer, professor and director of the Scheller Teacher Education Program and the Education Arcade, Boquin joined lead developer Paul Medlock-Walton to work on Gameblox, through MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).</p>
<p>Boquin describes Gameblox as a blocks programming language, in which users put blocks together to make something happen in the program. He worked on the user interface of the program, wrote tutorials for features, and built a framework for other researchers to test new code and features. His favorite part, though, was working on a Gameblox curriculum.</p>
<p>“I researched ways of finding out how teachers could use Gameblox to teach not only math and science, but also English, and history, and geography, and how to incorporate programming concepts in different levels of education,” Boquin says. “The features that I got to add to Gameblox as an engineer, I got to test, live, right afterward with teachers from Boston, or with students.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>International students from China and South Korea visiting MIT for various summer programs were some of Boquin’s first Gameblox test cases.</p>
<p>“The inspirational thing was seeing what they liked and what they didn’t like, and still being able to practice those teaching things I had sophomore year,” says Boquin. “Then I would [adjust] my curriculum based on the feedback they had<strong>. </strong>And that’s when I realized that I really wanted to make a difference in educational research, whether through software or other types of engineering. I love the feeling of being able to mentor students.”</p>
<p><strong>Leading the Latino Cultural Center</strong></p>
<p>Boquin met many of the communities that he is part of today even before he decided to come to MIT. At Campus Preview Weekend (CPW), he met the QuestBridge student group community, a group made of <a href="https://www.questbridge.org/scholars">QuestBridge Scholars</a> and other low-income students.</p>
<p>“At the Latino Cultural Center, I met a lot of future mentors that I would look up to,” he says, recalling CPW. “I inherited a lot of their ideas and passions, and I realized that not only could I make something out of an academic career or an engineering career, but I could make something out of an educational and diversity stance, too.”</p>
<p>As a sophomore, Boquin became the president of Latino Scientists and Engineers (formerly MAES, Mexican American Engineers and Scientists). The next year, he served as the treasurer for the Latino Cultural Center (LCC), and then became vice president as a senior.</p>
<p>“I really like implementing this type of programming that makes students feel empowered, that gives more opportunities to students, and just in general making students happy. I felt like one of the ways I could do that was as a leader in the LCC, as the vice president, to try to find leaders in sophomores, and freshman, and juniors,” he says. “It’s also about assigning other leadership roles.”</p>
<p><strong>New curriculum</strong></p>
<p>Boquin continues to develop curricula for different groups of students. This past fall, he became a teacher at CodeIt!, an MIT-student-run class that teaches coding to middle school girls.</p>
<p>The classes meet for eight sessions over eight weeks, and girls start by learning the basics of Scratch, another blocks-based programming language. They learn about loops, variables, data, and conditionals, all framed in projects such as games and animations. Next, the girls divide into groups to hone their skills on a project that they design — doing Scratch from scratch, Boquin says.</p>
<p>“I got to facilitate a class of 25 students, and lead six mentors, other undergraduates, to find the best way to [help the girls implement] their own individual ideas for projects,” says Boquin.</p>
<p>Boquin’s most recent teaching experience came on the other side of the world. Other than visiting his parent’s home country of Honduras, Boquin had never traveled internationally. This past Independent Activities Period, Boquin journeyed to South Korea with the MISTI Global Teaching Labs.</p>
<p>“The other hemisphere has a type of education that I have never experienced, like collective education versus individual and distinct [education]. That was something I wanted to experience and try out,” Boquin says.</p>
<p>The workshops in South Korea that Boquin helped host were MIT-style, project-based events, which involved “getting your hands dirty first, and then maybe learning about it after,” he says. “Something that blew me out of the water, too, was how much potential a student can have when you show them different perspectives — how much potential I can have, too, when they introduce me to new perspectives.”</p>
“I realized that I didn’t come to MIT because it was the best engineering school, but because it was the best place to discover what I was truly passionate about,” MIT senior Raul Boquin says.
Photo: Ian MacLellanProfile, Students, Undergraduate, Student life, Mathematics, Computer science and technology, Volunteering, outreach, public service, education, Education, teaching, academics, Diversity and inclusion, cambridge, Cambridge, Boston and region, Women in STEM, Clubs and activities, K-12 education, online learning, STEM education, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MISTI, SHASS, School of ScienceMindHandHeart announces the newest round of Innovation Fund winnershttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mindhandheart-announces-newest-round-of-innovation-fund-winners-0515
Eleven projects have been selected to bring creative wellness and mental health programming to campus.Mon, 15 May 2017 15:45:01 -0400Maisie O’Brien | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mindhandheart-announces-newest-round-of-innovation-fund-winners-0515<p>MindHandHeart has announced its newest <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund" target="_blank">Innovation Fund</a> winners, tapping into the MIT community’s passionate hearts, dedicated hands, and talented minds. Sponsored by the <a href="https://chancellor.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Office of the Chancellor</a> and <a href="https://medical.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MIT Medical</a>, this was the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund/grant-recipients" target="_blank">fifth round</a> of the Innovation Fund, which provides grants to projects championing wellness, community, and mental health awareness on campus.</p>
<p>The fund has awarded $33,581 to 11 new proposals selected from a pool of 29 applicants. Applications were reviewed by MindHandHeart’s <a href="https://mindhandheart.mit.edu/working-groups" target="_blank">working group</a> members as well as a selection committee comprised of representatives from the Undergraduate Association and Graduate Student Council. Awarded projects will focus on a range of topics from suicide prevention to a 24-hour community building challenge to a video series profiling faculty members.</p>
<p>“The newest round of Innovation Fund winners speaks to the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the MIT community,” said MindHandHeart Executive Administrator <a href="https://medical.mit.edu/find-a-provider/maryanne-kirkbride" target="_blank">Maryanne Kirkbride</a>. “I was moved by each of the applications and their dedication to advancing well-being, and I was thrilled to see that over half of the awarded projects were student-driven.”</p>
<p>First-year student Rosanna Zhang was awarded funding to spearhead “Project 24,” a grassroots challenge encouraging MIT students to initiate conversations with six people in 24 hours. Zhang describes her motivation for starting the project saying: “Spontaneous conversations give people the opportunity to connect with others on campus and be exposed to different perspectives. They can also help to normalize discussing challenges and show students that help-seeking is not as difficult as they had imagined. I hope “Project 24” will help to create a friendly and compassionate community where people don’t lose sight of their dreams and feelings.”</p>
<p>Another student-led Innovation Fund winner, “We are MIT,” consists of a video platform where students can submit short videos on a particular theme and compete for prizes. “We are MIT” founder Katrine Tjoelsen, a grad student in electrical engineering and computer science, says: “The project will provide a counter narrative to the idea of the ‘MIT bubble’ and show that our community is full of interesting people with unique intellectual interests, political perspectives, and crazy hobbies. We hope students will create and share videos full of positive emotion that will contribute to a cultural shift towards valuing joy and well-being.”</p>
<p>Director of physical education <a href="http://www.mitathletics.com/information/directory/moore_carrie00.html?view=bio" target="_blank">Carrie Sampson Moore</a> was awarded a grant to pilot two classes addressing the holistic health needs of MIT undergraduate students. The “Healthy Relationships and Healthy Body Fitness Course” is designed to make students better informed about the differences between healthy and abusive relationships, and reduce risky sexual behavior. The “Meditation/Fitness” course will promote wellness through meditation and other techniques proven to reduce stress and build resiliency.</p>
<p><a href="https://medical.mit.edu/find-a-provider/rheinila-fernandes" target="_blank">Rheinila Fernandes</a>, a psychiatrist in MIT Medical’s <a href="https://medical.mit.edu/services/mental-health-counseling" target="_blank">Mental Health and Counseling</a> department, and Naomi Carton, associate dean of <a href="https://studentlife.mit.edu/dining/residential-dining" target="_blank">Residential Life and Dining</a>, were awarded a grant to pilot “Wellness Buddies.” The program consists of a weekly dinner seminar where students are provided with life skills instruction and paired with a “wellness buddy” whom they can meet with to set goals and gauge progress. Each session is part of a neuroscience-based curriculum designed to educate students about how healthy nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, mindfulness, and growth mindset can improve academic performance.</p>
<p>“Often students will let self-care fall by the wayside during busy times,” says Fernandes. “It is our hope that creating a community and structure around self-care activities will help students cope with stress and function more effectively throughout the semester.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>Other projects funded this cycle include: “Neurodiversity at MIT and Design for Everyone,” a panel discussion exploring the experiences of neuroatypical students and barriers to inclusion; “Post-MIT: An MIT Story of Sticky Situations and the Stickies that Helped us Stick it Out,” an event showcasing how two graduate students used friendship, humor, and sticky notes to overcome adversity; “Pre-finals Care Packages,” the distribution of care packages during finals period; “The S Word,” a film screening about individuals impacted by suicide and a group discussion moderated by staff from Mental Health and Counseling; “American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf Culture Classes for MIT,” classes and social events related to ASL; and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIJXccw9VkEXq7bNNoKlqvA" target="_blank">Tea with Teachers</a>,” a student-led video series aiming to bridge the gap between students and professors.</p>
<p>To date, the fund has awarded over $130,000 to 40 projects that have impacted the MIT community in countless ways. 11 projects have become self-sustaining and have found a permanent home on campus, like <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/my-sisters-keeper-builds-community-for-black-women-students-1110" target="_self">My Sister’s Keeper</a> and the <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/mit-puppy-lab-open-during-national-mental-health-awareness-month-0504" target="_self">Puppy Lab</a>, and 16 are ongoing with support from MindHandHeart.</p>
<p>Previous projects funded through the Innovation Fund include: <a href="http://tll.mit.edu/design/you-belong-mit" target="_blank">You Belong @ MIT</a>, a three-phase initiative promoting academic belonging organized by the <a href="http://tll.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Teaching and Learning Lab</a>; the <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/open-mind-open-art-project-0315" target="_self">OpenMind::OpenArt</a> project, an art studio and public gallery raising awareness of mental health issues on campus; <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/algorithm-connects-students-to-interesting-people-on-campus-1017" target="_self">MIT Connect</a>, a digital platform pairing like-minded members of the MIT community for platonic, one-on-one lunches; and “<a href="https://soulstrong.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Portraits of Resilience</a>,” a book capturing MIT community members’ personal stories of overcoming adversity, curated by Professor <a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/dnj/" target="_blank">Daniel Jackson</a>.</p>
<p>To learn more about how MIT faculty, students, and staff members can apply for grants of up to $10,000, visit the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund" target="_blank">MindHandHeart Innovation Fund</a> page. For more information on upcoming events organized by Innovation Fund winners, visit the MindHandHeart <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/events#calendar" target="_blank">events calendar</a>.</p>
Spring 2017 Innovation Fund winners gather at a training session organized by MindHandHeart.Photo: Maisie O'BrienMindHandHeart, MIT Medical, Community, Mental health, Student life, Students, Faculty, Staff, Grants, Campus services, ChancellorYou belong @ MIThttp://news.mit.edu/2017/you-belong-at-mit-catherine-good-0512
A new initiative developed by the Teaching and Learning Lab is designed to increase students’ sense of academic belonging.Fri, 12 May 2017 14:10:01 -0400Maisie O’Brien | MindHandHeart Initiativehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/you-belong-at-mit-catherine-good-0512<p>“Wait a minute… I’m the only female in this class!” realizes the engineering student in the cartoon, sandwiched beside her two male classmates. She shakes nervously, hands clenched, considering the responsibility of “representing all of womankind” before collapsing face-down on her desk. “Ditz” and “Psycho” thought bubbles appear above her smirking classmates’ heads.</p>
<p>So began the kickoff event in the <a href="http://tll.mit.edu/design/you-belong-mit">You Belong @ MIT</a> interactive seminar by <a href="https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Psychology/Faculty-Bios/Catherine-Good" target="_blank">Catherine Good</a>, an associate professor of psychology at Baruch College of the City University of New York, senior research scientist at <a href="https://www.turnaroundusa.org/" target="_blank">Turnaround for Children</a>, and expert in the field of academic belonging. Participants in Good’s April 4th seminar debated the meaning and implications of <a href="https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-d7c76b87df576adf2bea13f3357d980b" target="_blank">this cartoon</a> by <a href="http://jorgecham.com/">Jorge Cham</a> of <em>The Stanford Daily.</em> Organized by the <a href="http://tll.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MIT Teaching and Learning Lab</a>, with support from the <a href="http://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund" target="_blank">MindHandHeart Innovation Fund</a>, the event was part of a three-phase initiative to increase students’ sense of academic belonging.</p>
<p>Academic belonging, Good explained, is distinct from friendship or acceptance from peers. “It’s not about whether I have a friend in my class or someone to go to the movies with. It’s about feeling like a valued member of my academic department or discipline.” She continued, “The absence of academic belonging impacts many students, but it affects underrepresented minorities and women in STEM fields most acutely. This can lead to decreased engagement in the classroom, and in some cases, poor academic performance.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the first part of the seminar, Good presented the latest research on academic belonging to faculty, postdocs, and administrators from across the Institute. During a follow-up workshop, participants discussed concrete strategies for increasing students’ sense of belonging and overall resiliency.</p>
<p><strong>Fixed vs. growth mindset</strong></p>
<p>Good began by introducing two commonly held theories of intelligence related to academic belonging: the fixed and growth mindsets. Those in the fixed camp view intelligence as determined by nature, while those in the growth camp believe it is malleable and rooted in effort. “Individuals with a fixed mindset view achievement as a way to validate their identity. Those with a growth mindset view achievement as a way to acquire new skills and knowledge. They may be working to solve the same problems, but they’re pursuing different goals.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>Good spoke to the specific challenges that a fixed mindset poses for high-achieving students. “Many of them haven’t developed the skills or resources to overcome academic challenges,” she said. “They’re left with their own interpretation of ‘What does it mean to study really hard for a test and only get a B-minus?’ Effort, hard work, failure, struggle — all of those things take on a different meaning in a fixed vs. a growth mindset. A fixed view of intelligence is great as long as you never have to struggle.”</p>
<p>The group discussed how many students enter MIT with a fixed view of intelligence, and the challenges it can pose. A participant reflected, “One of the things we have to consider at MIT is that we’re skimming the upper echelon of students. Many of them were at the top of their high school class. Now that they’re in a pool of all high-achieving people, it can feel like they’re not smart anymore.”</p>
<p>Another participant added, “Many of our students have built their whole self-concept around the idea of being ‘smart.’ If they feel like they’re not ‘smart’ anymore, it’s almost as if they don’t exist. If they’re not the best, then they feel like they’re nothing.”</p>
<p><strong>Strategies for growth and belonging</strong></p>
<p>Participants discussed ways to encourage students to adopt a growth mindset, and normalize effort and engagement as the path to success. Good suggested starting with the neurological underpinnings of intelligence. “In my research, I’m explaining to elementary, middle, and high school students that the brain is filled with cells called neurons, and to get smarter means the neurons communicate between each other more effectively through repeating an activity. The mind is like a muscle: The more you work it, the stronger it gets.”</p>
<p>Good reviewed research studies and highlighted some of the documented effects of fostering a growth mindset. “It’s striking that when you teach people about growth mindset, that gaps in achievement between black and white kids, men and women, go away even on standardized tests.” Growth mindset, she said, has also been shown to counter stereotype threat, a condition where one feels at risk of confirming to stereotypes about their social group.</p>
<p>Participants shared ways they or their colleagues have worked to encourage a growth mindset at MIT, as well as new ideas for doing so. The group discussed discouraging overt competitiveness, which can undermine belonging; grading students based on established benchmarks of mastery; allowing students to correct their homework and receive partial credit for doing so; working with struggling students to cultivate better studying strategies; recognizing what students are doing well in addition to what they can improve upon; and acknowledging that a student’s performance in one class is not enough information to predict their overall success in a field of study.</p>
<p>The group discussed how hearing stories of failure and resilience from professors and respected peers is profoundly meaningful to students who are struggling academically and may feel isolated. “Everyone shows you Superman, but no one shows you Clark Kent,” summarized one participant.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The interactive seminar and workshop on academic belonging were preceded by a book club on the same topic. The Teaching and Learning Lab is currently planning the second of the three-part You Belong @ MIT program.</p>
<p>You Belong @ MIT was funded by the MindHandHeart Innovation Fund, which awards grants to projects advancing wellness, mental health, and community at MIT.</p>
Catherine Good leads an interactive seminar on academic belonging with faculty, postdocs, and administrators from across MIT. Photo: Maisie O'BrienSpecial events and guest speakers, Teaching and Learning Laboratory, MindHandHeart, Community, Students, Student life, Mental health, Behavior, Diversity and inclusion, Women in STEM, Education, teaching, academicsChanneling Gilbert and Sullivanhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/channeling-gilbert-and-sullivan-mit-0508
A passionate community comes together at MIT to deliver timeless tales through song, dance, and Victorian-era humor.Mon, 08 May 2017 17:45:01 -0400Meg Murphy | School of Engineeringhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/channeling-gilbert-and-sullivan-mit-0508<p>When graduate student Phil Arevalo wants a diversion from his research on gene transfer and population structure, he turns to the comic operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan.</p>
<p>“These plays are very silly, and I really appreciate that,” says Arevalo of the 14 operas produced by librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan in the late 1800s. “If you’re a real musical nerd, you can’t help but fall in love.”</p>
<p>At present, the <a href="http://gsp.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players</a>, a student club led by Arevalo, are offering a modern exploration of the classic “The Yeomen of the Guard.” Every show draws in a volunteer cast and crew of about five dozen people, and currently more than half of the longstanding actors and musicians hail from off campus.</p>
<p>“We are always eager to get more students at MIT connected with our group,” says Sara Haugland, a member of the club’s executive board. A few years ago, Haugland moved from Sacramento, California, to Boston looking for work as a singer, and learned that MIT is home to one of the most welcoming theater groups in the area. “I discovered this passionate Gilbert and Sullivan community at MIT — a place where you wouldn’t expect to find a really prolific musical group. I loved the surprise of that,” she says.</p>
<p>She and Arevalo, along with fellow executive board member Emma Brown, an Emerson College graduate, are squeezed together in a cramped room in the MIT student center. Haugland motions to the racks of costumes behind her, “We have a lot of fun.”</p>
<p><strong>Getting it right</strong></p>
<p>On a recent April night, the cast of “The Yeomen of the Guard” ran through Act One. People divided into small clusters where, aside from singing, they acted out various parts: A man fell to the ground in death throes, a woman fainted, and various actors delivered dramatic shoves.</p>
<p>As the final scene wrapped up with signature comic absurdity, stage director Cailin Doran, a graduate of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music, yelled: “Everyone take a moment to think about how that could have gone better for you.” She is an upbeat and demanding director, often shouting things like: “Keep up that energy! Think about making some bold choices! I’m loving what I’m seeing in that cluster!”</p>
<p>Walking away from the rehearsal grid for a five-minute break, Doran said: “This is a nerdy niche that requires a decent grasp of language and music. The work of Gilbert and Sullivan is funny and smart. I think MIT students love it.”</p>
<p>Doran directed her actors back into position, and the tempo picked up. They began to run around the stage in complicated patterns, at times colliding. A young man stepped forward to catch a young woman, and something went awry. “I’m used to catching a guy!” he shouted, after miscalculating the placement of his hands. He blushed and muttered, “It’s so different.” Doran patiently demonstrated how to correctly catch a woman. Then the players were back at it again.</p>
<p>As Doran encouraged “environmental noises,” which involved whooping, squealing, and other antics, music director Lorraine Fitzmaurice, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, resident who also discovered the club by word-of-mouth, reminded the cast to keep their singing on pace. “You have a half note for the word in this line,” she said. “Take a breath earlier because the orchestra won’t wait.” Opening night was less than a week away.</p>
<p><strong>A personal repertoire</strong></p>
<p>Stage manager Kathryn Jiang, a first-year MIT student, is in charge of running rehearsals and maintaining “The Book,” the master score with all of the cues, entrances, exits, and edits. Not an opera singer herself, she loves to witness the music come alive. “My favorite moment so far was during our sing-through,” she says, referring to the first time the cast convened to sight-read the score. “It was magical.”</p>
<p>Concertmaster Rossana Chung, a technical associate at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, says that people who join the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players get the chance to learn about singing, dancing, set design, costuming, and more. “And if you’re an instrumentalist, you learn how to play in a pit and work with singers,” says Chung, also a member of the executive board. “Gilbert and Sullivan is light opera. It’s accessible to modern audiences, and it’s a lot of fun. There is no reason to be intimidated.”</p>
<p>With enough exposure, the quirky operettas will charm you, says club president Arevalo. “I wasn’t sure I’d like it when I started, but the more I listened and performed, the more the Gilbert and Sullivan humor really grew on me,” he says.</p>
<p>Now Arevalo finds the world made possible by Gilbert and Sullivan more comforting that he could have imagined. “It’s a set repertoire,” he says, listing off just a few of the perennial favorites, “H.M.S. Pinafore,” “The Pirates of Penzance,” and&nbsp;“The Mikado.”</p>
<p>“You can sort of just know the whole cannon. And that’s a really neat thing,” he says. “It’s always there to go back to.”</p>
“If you’re a real musical nerd, you can’t help but fall in love,” says MIT grad student Phil Arevalo, leader of the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players.Photo: Lillie Paquette/School of EngineeringArts, Student life, Clubs and activities, Theater“IDEAS” to change the worldhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/ideas-global-challenge-awards-0502
MIT teams innovating in medical, education, environmental, and other fields split prizes totaling $95,000.Tue, 02 May 2017 09:30:00 -0400Rob Matheson | MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/ideas-global-challenge-awards-0502<p>Ten MIT student teams developing innovations to improve the lives of people around the world split awards totaling $95,000 — including a top prize for an app that tackles the U.S. opioid epidemic —&nbsp;at the annual IDEAS Global Challenge showcase and awards ceremony.</p>
<p>Throughout Saturday afternoon, 40 teams showcased innovations in the MIT Media Lab in eight categories: water and sanitation, education and training, agriculture and food, health and medical, emergency and disaster relief, housing and transportation, energy and environment, mobile devices and communication, and finance and entrepreneurship.</p>
<p>Among the many innovative projects were drones that deliver disaster relief packages or capture images of villages for planning purposes; robotics and analytics technology that mines sewers for health data; a braille e-reader for the blind; novel solar-powered desalination technology; apps that track personal carbon emissions or help dairy farmers track milk production; and medical devices that analyze nutritional content of breast milk or simplify medication dosing for illiterate caregivers.</p>
<p>A team of judges, which included local investors and entrepreneurs, selected 10 winners to receive a top $15,000 award, five $10,000 awards, and four $7,500 awards.</p>
<p>The $15,000 prize went to <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3408159/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Hey, Charlie</a>, a team fighting the opioid-addiction epidemic in Massachusetts and across the nation with a behavioral modification app for people struggling with addiction.</p>
<p>Opioid-related deaths in Massachusetts quadrupled from 2000 to 2015; now at 25 deaths per 100,000 residents, they are more than double the national average, according to Massachusetts Health and Human Services. Nationally, opioid overdoses caused 33,000 deaths in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>
<p>Hey, Charlie, which started as a project for the MIT Hacking Medicine hackathon last year, passively collects data from smartphones to help&nbsp;people struggling with addiction connect more with supportive people and distance themselves from unhealthy relationships. If a person who may not be an effective source of support contacts the patient, for example, the app sends a text alert. It will also send an alert if the patient hasn’t talked to a positive influence in a while. The app also provides data to therapists or social workers if, say, the patient has engaged in a certain number of risky communications recently.</p>
<p>The aim is to change the social networks and behavior of people struggling with addiction. “Pretty much anyone you talk to has someone close to them [struggling] with addiction,” team member and app co-developer Emily Lindemer, a PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, told <em>MIT News</em>. “We have to look at [addiction] as a social disease that can’t be fixed simply with a pill.”</p>
<p>Using the money, the team will pilot the platform at the Boston Medical Center and start trials at treatment centers to scientifically validate patient outcomes. By providing funding and support to entrepreneurs at the crux of social change and health care, IDEAS provided the perfect commercial launch point for the team, Lindemer said: “The mission is so in line with what we want to do.”</p>
<p>IDEAS also provided a helpful development platform for the <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3408379/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Okoa Project</a>, which won a $10,000 award for engineering a custom ambulance cart that attaches to motorcycles in rural Tanzania, where ambulances are scarce but motorcycles are ubiquitous. The cart — a covered, two-wheeled trailer equipped with a stretcher — started as a D-Lab project but really took shape commercially while the team prepared for IDEAS, said team member Sade Nabahe, a mechanical engineering student.</p>
<p>“The most valuable thing we gained was the questions we had to answer in preparation for IDEAS: How do you plan on implementing it? What are your key challenges? Who are our customers?” Nabahe told <em>MIT News</em>, while a group of attendees examined the team’s prototype located nearby on the showcase floor. “It made us think more about the bigger picture.”</p>
<p>The eight other winners were: <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3395225/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Nesterly</a> ($7,500), <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3313161/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Joro</a> (the $7,500 Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award), <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3407819/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Pukuni Community House</a> ($7,500), <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3224133/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Kumej</a> ($7,500), <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3097745/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Biobot Labs</a> ($10,000), <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3096611/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Need-a-Knee</a> ($10,000), <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3407031/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">Drones For Humanity</a> ($10,000), and <a href="https://ideasglobalchallenge.fluidreview.com/p/s/3408519/?&amp;q=&amp;g=">MDaaS</a> ($10,000).</p>
<p>This year, more than 500 students participating in IDEAS attended dinners and other events, many sponsored the Bose Corporation, where they learned from past winners and entrepreneurial mentors, pitched ideas, and recruited team members. IDEAS also awarded 25 teams funding throughout the year to help them build prototypes.</p>
<p>Over its 16 years, IDEAS, organized annually by the Priscilla King Gray (PKG) Public Service Center, has awarded $850,000 to 140 teams that now reach more than 100,000 people in 44 countries. Winners have gone on to secure more than $42 million in additional funding. Some of last year’s winners have already taught 400 people to make bamboo bicycles in China, digitized artwork of more than 800 rural artists in Indonesia and India, and made online learning accessible for 4,000 students in Ghana.</p>
<p>Several past winners were on hand at the ceremony to present awards to newcomers and provide brief remarks about their startups’ progress and the long-lasting impact of IDEAS.</p>
<p>Harvard University graduate Jackie Stenson won a 2012 IDEAS prize with Essmart Global, an Indian technology-distribution startup she co-founded with MIT alumna Diana Jue Rajasingh ’09, SM ’12. Today, the startup has sold more than 25,000 products in the country. “The only reason we got started was IDEAS,” Stenson said. “This was our first validation and first real chunk of funding that basically told us, ‘You should get started.’”</p>
<p>About half of all winning IDEAS teams remain active in some way. But, even if teams disband, the positive influence of IDEAS stays with the members, said Brian Spatocco PhD ’15, who won an IDEAS prize in 2013 for GridForm, which developed software to optimize microgrid installations in rural India. The technology led to the construction of several microgrids in the country — which still service more than 1,000 people — before the startup broke up.</p>
<p>“We are no longer together, but the impact of IDEAS actually continues on in our team,” Spatocco said. One team member became a professor of social good at Carnegie Mellon University, while another stayed in India to build a new startup. Spatocco now works at an agriculture startup making fertilizer affordable throughout the world. “For us, the take-away has always been: It’s not just the idea, it’s always what [the IDEAS program] does to the people,” he said.</p>
<p>For Kate Trimble, senior director of the PKG Public Service Center, Spatocco’s story exemplifies a key mission of IDEAS —&nbsp;leaving a long-lasting impression on social entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>“The money is the topping on the sundae, for sure,” she said. “But the way this program is designed makes it a unique learning experience whether you win an award or don’t win an award. Preparing MIT students to change the world in positive ways is what IDEAS and the PKG Center are all about.”</p>
All winning teams of the annual IDEAS Global Challenge, held Saturday, April 29, in the MIT Media Lab. Photo: Dominick ReuterStudents, Student life, Contests and academic competitions, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E), Invention, D-Lab, Startups, Sustainability, Energy, Environment, Data, Medical devices, Public Service Center (PSC)Featured video: Having a ballhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-ballroom-dance-0428
Students balance mind and body through ballroom dancing at MIT.Fri, 28 Apr 2017 17:00:01 -0400MIT News Officehttp://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-ballroom-dance-0428<div class="cms-placeholder-content-video"></div>
<p>Each spring, the MIT Ballroom Dance Team hosts the&nbsp;<a href="http://ballroom.mit.edu/comp/" target="_blank">MIT Open Ballroom Competition</a> — the largest collegiate competition in the country. Nearly 1,000 dancers from dozens of universities pack Rockwell Cage&nbsp;and strive to deliver, according to MIT team captain Corey Cleveland, something truly individual.</p>
<p>“The judges and the audience are not looking for someone who can bring perfect technique,” says Cleveland, a senior majoring in electrical engineering. “They are looking for the unique offering — for something they have never seen before.”</p>
<p>After discovering ballroom dance as a first-year student, Cleveland has logged countless hours on the floor. He loves the challenge of open competition, which involves original choreography. “We have to think about the expressions and emotions we want to put out there,” he says. “How do we do that through movement? What are the different shapes we want to do?”</p>
<p>He credits MIT’s academic courses with “waking up my mind” and the ballroom dance team — particularly its accomplished professional coaches — with awakening his artistic side by encouraging a fluid connection between mind and body.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The beauty of that connection is evident when members of the MIT Ballroom Dance Team, which includes a number of national semifinalists and finalists in the U.S. amateur division, take the floor.</p>
<p>“The goal of dance — of all arts — is to express what everyone is feeling but can’t yet say,” says Cleveland. “It’s such a cathartic moment when you see something on the floor that you can relate to. It is a release, and it gives everyone shivers.”</p>
<p><em>Submitted by: Meg Murphy/School of Engineering </em>|<em> Video by: Lillie Paquette/School of Engineering</em> | <em>1 min, 40 sec</em></p>
Members of the MIT Ballroom Dance teamPhoto: Lillie Paquette/School of EngineeringStudents, Undergraduate, Student life, Featured video, Arts, Clubs and activities, School of EngineeringMIT community members honored for work to prevent sexual misconducthttp://news.mit.edu/2017/community-members-honored-for-work-preventing-sexual-misconduct-0426
MIT Violence Prevention and Response and Title IX Office recognize students, faculty, and staff with 2017 Change Makers Awards.Wed, 26 Apr 2017 16:55:01 -0400Kimberly Haberlin | Office of the Chancellorhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/community-members-honored-for-work-preventing-sexual-misconduct-0426<p>As part of the Institute’s efforts to call attention to sexual assault education and prevention work during national <a href="http://elephant.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Sexual Assault Awareness Month</a>, MIT <a href="https://studentlife.mit.edu/vpr" target="_blank">Violence Prevention and Response</a> (VPR) and the <a href="https://titleix.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Title IX Office</a> hosted the first annual Change Maker Awards on April 11. The ceremony, which brought advocates and allies from across campus together, recognized select students, faculty, and staff for their outstanding work to end sexual violence at MIT.</p>
<p>“The VPR and Title IX teams came up with the idea for the Change Maker Awards because we want to make the positive visible,” said Kate McCarthy, director of VPR. “We want to celebrate the people who are working to create a more inclusive and welcoming community.”</p>
<p>The awards honor individuals who reflect the values and mission of the Institute, challenge harmful attitudes, language, and behaviors, and help take positive strides toward shifting the culture that perpetuates sexual violence. Faculty, staff, and students were encouraged to nominate individuals or student groups who are working to make a difference at MIT. The selection committee, which included representatives from VPR and Title IX, reviewed the nominations and selected this year’s award recipients.</p>
<p>Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart, who has made sexual assault education and prevention a top priority during her tenure, congratulated VPR, Title IX, and the first class of Change Makers for their hard work and dedication.</p>
<p>“I believe it is important for us to take a moment out of our hectic day-to-day lives to recognize our students, faculty, staff, and organizations in this way. By honoring the individuals who are responsible for moving us forward, we are making a powerful statement about our collective commitment to education, prevention, and cultural change,” Barnhart said during welcoming remarks at the ceremony.</p>
<p>The 2017 Change Maker Award recipients play diverse roles on campus and bring unique perspectives, expertise, creativity, and commitment to eliminating one of the most pressing problems in higher education today.</p>
<p>The following individuals and student group make up the inaugural class of Change Makers:</p>
<ul>
<li>Senior Charlie Andrews-Jubelt was selected for his contributions as a member of Students Advocating for Education and Respectful Relationships (SAFER2) and founding peer educator in <a href="http://pleasure.mit.edu/" target="_blank">PLEASURE</a>. Andrews-Jubelt is known for speaking up to challenge harmful cultural norms.</li>
<li>Graduate student Priya Moni was recognized for her initiative to improve the online sexual harassment training programs new students take during orientation by adding content tailored to the MIT community.</li>
<li>MIT’s Interfraternity Council’s sexual misconduct committee members were named Change Makers because the group designed the Consent Awareness and Prevention (CAP) certification program to recognize fraternities who prioritize member education.</li>
<li>David Singer, associate professor of political science and associate head of house at MacGregor, received recognition for his work chairing the <a href="https://committees.mit.edu/sites/default/files/MembershipPDFs/Sexual%20Misconduct%20Prevention%20and%20Response%20Roster%202016-2017%20as%20of%2020160913.pdf" target="_blank">Presidential Committee on Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response</a>. Singer spearheaded the effort to ensure all faculty and staff receive training on sexual misconduct prevention as well as how to respond to a student who discloses a sexual misconduct incident.</li>
<li>Graduate student Brittney Johnson was selected by her peers and by Vienna Rothberg, program manager of the PLEASURE program, for her consistent positive energy, dedication, and constructive criticism as a member of the PLEASURE Executive Board. Johnson has also instituted proactive changes to improve the group’s operations.</li>
</ul>
<p>VPR and Title IX staff will continue to work with these allies as well as the countless other champions of change in the hopes of eliminating sexual violence at MIT.&nbsp;</p>
MIT Title IX Office Director Sarah Rankin addresses the 2017 Change Makers Awards ceremony held on April 11.Photo: Office of the ChancellorCommunity, Special events and guest speakers, Chancellor, Health, Student lifeFrom fieldwork to the big screenhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/from-fieldwork-to-big-screen-cee-video-competition-0424
Fourth annual CEE Video Competition highlights global research and opportunities.Mon, 24 Apr 2017 16:40:01 -0400Carolyn Schmitt | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineeringhttp://news.mit.edu/2017/from-fieldwork-to-big-screen-cee-video-competition-0424<p>“How can we reduce the environmental damage that agriculture so often causes and support the livelihood of farmers, all while continuing to feed the growing world population?”</p>
<p>This question was central to the winning entry at the fourth annual Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Video Competition. The video, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHDQOW9UcpM" target="_blank">UAVs in Precision Agriculture</a>,” produced by Alexa Jaeger, a junior in CEE and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, explored how students participating in Traveling Research Environmental eXperiences (TREX) are using unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor soil quality across crop fields. By comparing the UAV images with soil samples, they are seeking to determine if this inexpensive method is a reliable way to gather crop health data across farms.</p>
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<p>This year’s video competition challenged members of the CEE community to make a video that shows how Course 1 makes an impact on a global scale. Community members responded by sharing their creative approaches to explaining their fieldwork, lab research, and humanitarian aid trips. On April 13, CEE hosted a film screening of all the entries, complete with popcorn and movie theater candy. &nbsp;</p>
<p>“In CEE we see the world as our classroom. From research conducted in labs experiments here at MIT, to fieldwork around the world, Course 1 students are encouraged to apply what they learn to real-world applications” said Markus Buehler, head of CEE and the McAfee Professor of Engineering. “The video competition offers a unique way for members of the CEE community to showcase the variety of global approaches they take to solve the world’s major issues.”</p>
<p>Joining CEE as guest judges were Denny Freeman, dean for undergraduate education and professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Jim Champy ’63, SM ’65, author and business consultant; and Erin Schenck, managing director of the MIT-Germany Program. The trio was tasked with evaluating each entry based on the global research, scientific inquiry, and engineering action, as well as how much passion and excitement was evident in the film.</p>
<p>“The videos were very compelling and cleverly produced,” Champy said. “They clearly presented the objectives of the projects and the excitement in their work. I was very impressed with our students' ability to express themselves though this medium.”</p>
<p>Freeman, Champy and Schenck awarded Jaeger’s “UAVs in Precision Agriculture” the first place award, which comes with a $1,000 prize. Attendees of the competition also gave Jaeger the People’s Choice award, which comes with an additional $100 prize.</p>
<p>“I wanted to share the global impact of TREX because it is so cool that undergraduates in Course 1 can participate in research that has such global and important applications. It isn't just a few undergrads either; anyone can take this class and participate. It was such a great experience learning about environmental fieldwork,” Jaeger said.</p>
<p>CEE senior Kathy Dieppa won second place and a $500 prize for her video “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HgSjUqWFoQ" target="_blank">Back to Basics: Improving Access to Water and Sanitation in El Salvador</a>.” Dieppa documented her Independent Activities Period service trip with MIT D-Lab to El Salvador, where she and fellow MIT students repaired water reservoirs, shared sanitation best-practices, and built latrines.</p>
<p>“In our society, it is often easy to forget that there are so many people in the world who are without the basic necessities that we often take for granted,” Dieppa said. “It's important to show that CEE research tackles some of the world's largest and most fundamental problems.”</p>
<p>The third-place prize and $250 was given to graduate students Tiziana Smith and Chi Feng for their entry, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFjYQVBCFgg" target="_blank">Research for a Hungry World</a>.” The video explained how by using data and simulations, researchers can understand how farming impacts the environment on local and global scales.</p>
<p>“As graduate students, we are trained in communicating our work to scientific audiences in longer forms like papers, presentations, and posters,” Smith said. “A two-minute video for general audiences really forces you to identify the essence of your work, and think of creative ways to verbalize and visualize it. The process is challenging, but also a lot of fun!”</p>
Left to right: Graduate student Tiziana Smith (3rd place), junior Alexa Jaeger (1st place) and senior Kathy Dieppa (2nd place) were the three winners of the fourth annual CEE Video Competition. Photo: Allison Dougherty/Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringScience communications, Contests and academic competitions, Civil and environmental engineering, EAPS, Student life, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (eecs), Agriculture, Earth and atmospheric sciences, Students, Undergraduate, Graduate, postdoctoral, School of Engineering, School of Science, UAV